Study on Heat Exchanging Characteristics of Automobile Exhaust Heat Recirculation Device

Abstract

Recently, various technologies for the fuel efficiency improvement are being developed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the heat exchanging performance of a exhaust heat recirculation device and to propose a model with optimized performance. The device has been designed to warm up engine coolant as quickly as possible using wasted exhaust heat. To achieve these goals, heat transfer characteristics has been analyzed using CFD for the flow direction effect and in/out location effect of coolant. A method improving the effectiveness of heat exchange has been proposed. As a result, the highest efficiency in heat exchange was observed on condition that exhaust heat affects the coolant directly with a separate flow path between exhaust gas and coolant and that coolant flow rate is relatively low.