Design of the cooling system air inlet of a heavy-duty vehicle with the coupling 1D and 3D – CFD tools

One of the challenging issues in all types of cars is cooling and heat transfer. This issue requires its own unique design in cars with special use. In this article, the cooling system of the heavy-duty vehicle is designed and its various characteristics are investigated. First, with the help of a 1D model in GT-SUITE software, the temperature of the engine coolant is calculated based on the performance of the heat exchanger and the flow rates of the radiator coolant, and then this 1D model is coupled with a 3D- CFD model to examine the air flow patterns through the underhood. With the help of the cooling system design algorithm presented in this paper, it is possible to check the effect of the geometry characteristics of the air inlet channel on the performance of the cooling system. Using fan frame, radiator frame and inlet and outlet grill increases the flow rate by 20% and using the angle of the inlet grill at 70 degrees instead of the initial 35 degrees increases the flow rate of air passing through the radiator by 21.74%.