Thermal Management in Engine Compartment for Efficient Working of the Intercooler on a Rear Engine Vehicle 2012-01-1044

This paper is related to a vehicle with rear engine which is turbo charged and inter cooled. Due to packaging constraints the intercooler was placed in front of turbocharger and was exposed to hot air radiated out from the turbo charger. This was in turn reducing the efficiency of the intercooler. In such scenario, it is essential to shield the turbo charger from the intercooler for proper hot air management. Also rear engine vehicles don't have the benefit of ram air affect. This necessitates increasing the air entering in to the core of the intercooler. Both the above mentioned issues associated with such a vehicle was resolved by ensuring that the hot air from turbo-charge is guided away from the intercooler as well as the air flow to Intercooler is increased. Guiding or throwing out the hot air away from Intercooler was done by introducing a heat shield or a baffle between the two. The air flow into the Intercooler core was increased by providing a scoop on the bottom of the Intercooler. This scoop diverted the air flow underneath the vehicle on to the core of the Intercooler. With these two modification based on principle of air management it was possible to make the intercooler work efficiently even with out a fan.

This work done on the vehicle enlightens the importance of hot air management within the engine compartment and air management underneath the vehicle for efficient working of engine and other components in its vicinity.