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The design of more efficient automotive cooling systems requires better understanding of the losses in fluid mechanical energy through conversion to thermal energy for the air flow through the front end cooling openings. A wind tunnel study with simplified models has been conducted to investigate the factors affecting the cooling opening mechanical energy losses. The data from this study have been sucessfully correlated using newly defined dimensionless parameters. The influence of the controlled geometrical factors are clearly identifiable with the data presented in dimensionless form. An algorithm has been devised which accurately correlates the behavior of a combination of cooling openings given the behavior of each of the openings operating individually.

An experimental investigation of the underhood cooling airflow of a production passenger car has been carried out with a 3/8-scale model in a water filled tow tank at Texas Tech University and with a production vehicle in the Maritime Dynamics Laboratory tow basin of SSPA Maritime Consulting AB in Gothenburg, Sweden. The primary objectives for both the 3/8 and production vehicle investigations were to obtain a better understanding of the cooling airflow behavior within the engine compartment of an automobile and to identify the major factors influencing the flow field. The tests consisted of running a fan on a stationary and moving vehicle with pressure measurements and extensive flow visualizations within the engine bay.