If you’ve ever driven a vehicle, you probably want to know what that large metal part up front does. Yes, I am referring to the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is among the most crucial parts of your car’s engine system, despite the fact that it may appear to be simply another hint.
Heat exchangers play a significant role in maintaining your overall car performance by temperature regulation. Heat exchangers transfer heat to the outside air of the vehicle, maintaining the engine at its ideal temperature.
What do the heat exchangers do?
To maintain the car’s performance and lifespan heat exchangers are used for both cooling and heating purposes. Heat transfer can all be accomplished depending on the kind of heat exchanger being utilized. Following, it passes through a solid wall with a high heat conductivity, preventing direct fluid contact or mixing of the liquids.
An excellent illustration of them may be seen in internal combustion engines, where air and fluid as a cooling agent circulate through radiator coils, chilling the car coolant and heating incoming air.
Another example is a heat sink when heat is produced by an electrical or mechanical device in a liquid medium. Heat exchangers find extensive use in also air conditioning, refrigeration, space heaters, and chemical factories.
Source: Freepik.com
Types of Heat Exchangers
Moving towards the types of heat exchangers, there are many types, such as,
1. Direct Heat Exchangers
In the lack of an isolating wall, direct heat exchangers facilitate heat transmission between the two types of hot and cold currents. These heat exchanger types substitute simultaneous heat transmission and direct contact of hot and cold fluid for heat exchange. Jet condensers and cooling towers are two examples.
Using a second fluid that is kept apart from the first by a solid barrier to prevent mixing, passive heat exchangers are utilized to monitor the temperature difference between the two liquids. These heat exchangers use tubes, plates, etc., to maintain the fluid-transferred heat’s separation.
2. Finned Tube
The highest heat transfer surface area with the exchanged heat is what finned tube heat exchangers are meant to refer to, which increases the efficiency of transferring heat in liquids with low thermal conductivity, like air.
It is made up of a number of tubes with flippers added to enhance the area in which the fluid within the tube and the liquid outside the tube come into contact to exchange heat. These finned tubes are often constructed of copper-the metal of the future, both of which are thin materials. These heat exchangers are found in automobile radiators and air conditioners.
3. Adiabatic Wheel Heat Exchangers
It is made up of an intermediate fluid that is kept warm and a revolving wheel. After that, it is sent to the heat exchanger’s opposite side for release. To enhance the surface area, there are threads around the circle of the wheel.
It transfers heat by circulating across two fluid-filled parts while in operation. These are crucial in situations when efficient heat transmission between gasses is required, as it is not always feasible with other types.
Other types of car heat exchangers include the radiator, oil coolers, and charge air coolers; among them, the radiator is the most commonly used heat exchanger in cars.
Due to the overall poor heat exchange system, many car drivers also face tire punctures. So, check out the car tire sales to get better tire purchases.