Automotive Condenser Operational Relationships Development Based on Numerical Simulations and the Design of Experiment

In the present study, the thermal performance of the air-side compact heat exchanger of an automotive condenser in the three-dimensional model has been numerically simulated based on the design of experiment (DOE). For this purpose, the effective geometrical parameters such as fin pitch, louvre pitch, louvre angle, fin height and fin width and their effects on condenser thermal performance are studied and investigated. Finally, for parameters effective on the compact heat exchanger operation, such as air-side heat transfer coefficient, static pressure drop and other thermal parameters, relationships are extracted based on the design of experiment which decrease the computational cost with the least error. The results show quantitatively that by increasing the fin length, louver angle, louver pitch and decreasing the fin pitch, the heat transfer rate increases by about 42%. Also, the results show that the heat dissipation, heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, have improved by 8.1%, 5% and 10.5% respectively compared to recent numerical results. Eventually parametric studies including the effect of ambient temperature, condenser wall temperature and vehicle speed on thermal performance and pressure drop are presented.