Effect of Airflow Impact Angle on the Flow and Heat Transfer Performance of a V-Mount Intercooler using Multi-Scale Coupling and Porous Media Modeling
Keywords:
intercooler, airflow impact angle, porous media model, multi-scale coupling methodAbstract
This study aims to investigate the effects of airflow impact angles on the flow behavior and heat transfer performance of an intercooler using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) combined with a multi-scale coupling method and a porous media model. The accuracy of the porous media model in predicting heat transfer performance was validated against an explicit fin model, yielding Mean Absolute Errors (MAE) of 0.193% and 2.445% for fin pitches of 1 mm and 2 mm, respectively. Four impact angles—15°, 30°, 45°, and 90°—were analyzed. The results indicate that the impact angle significantly influences the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), pressure drop (), and cooling air mass flow rate, which are the primary factors affecting heat transfer performance. Higher impact angles lead to increased heat transfer rates (Q), with the maximum value of 78.29 kW observed at 90°. However, effectiveness analysis shows that the 15° case achieves the highest thermal effectiveness (
≈0.97), whereas the 90° case exhibits the lowest effectiveness (
≈ 0.69).
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