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Step by step US and European legislation are defining more stringent emission limits for diesel engines. Depending on these limits for NOx and particulate emissions different emission reduction concepts including or excluding cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) appear over time. Most probable cooled EGR will be the solution for US02 and, in combination with particulate traps, for many Euro4 applications. Competitive aftertreatment solutions like selective catalytic reduction (SCR) may need cooled EGR in addition to meet even tougher emission targets. Therefore cooled EGR can be assumed to be a long term task. The impacts on the power train cooling system arise from the need of high performance EGR systems. This results in increased heat rejection from the EGR cooler and increased pressure and temperature loads on the charge air cooling system.

A high efficiency lightweight heat exchanger has been developed for water jacket cooling of engine oil in heavy commercial vehicles. This heat exchanger is comprised of aluminum construction, and utilizes recent developments in heat exchanger technology to obtain high heat rejection, low parasitic loss, and superior strength. This new development offers significant advantages over today's stainless steel oil cooler technology. Specifically, a 15-20% increase in performance is typical, while a minimum of 50% weight savings is expected. This innovation has been released for high volume production, and represents a major benefit for our customers.

Due to the introduction of new, more stringent exhaust gas emission regulations for diesel engines, expected to be enforced in Europe and the USA in 1999 and 2004, respectively, new emission-reducing technologies are becoming the focus of attention. One such technology is the cooled exhaust gas recirculation method (cooled EGR) which permits a reduction in emissions with only a small increase in fuel consumption. The heat exchanger used in such a system must be capable of meeting high demands in terms of compact design, performance, resistance to high temperatures, corrosion and fouling. The paper describes the development of an EGR cooler designed by Behr which meets these demands and, in particular, has a high performance density. This was achieved by using a new kind of heat exchanger core.