CFD Analysis of Hot Air Recirculation in Cooling System of Off Road Vehicle

Abstract

The demands on cooling system of an off-road vehicle have increased due to charge air cooling, air conditioning and higher horsepower (hp) engines. In order to maximize cooling system performance of an off-road vehicle, the temperature of air entering the cooling system through front grill should be as low as possible, ideally at ambient temperature. Hot air exiting the cooling system which finds its way back to the front grill decreases the system performance. This is called as hot air recirculation. To study hot air recirculation complete vehicle is placed in physical wind tunnel facility. With CFD simulation tool this hot air recirculation can be studied in a virtual wind tunnel. Current paper studies hot air recirculation & quantifies the recirculation using CFD tool. Influence of tail wind velocity on recirculation was studied. The results of simulations were compared with experimental results.

Keywords: Off Road Vehicle, Hot Air Recirculation, Virtual Wind Tunnel