1 research outputs found
Experimental and numerical simulation of single-phase flow in a micro heat spreader applied to the cold start of internal combustion engines fueled with ethanol
Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.This work presents the results of numerical simulations and
experimental evaluation of a micro heat spreader applied to the
cold start of internal combustion engines fuelled with ethanol.
At low temperatures (below 11 °C), using only ethanol as fuel,
engines are unable to start. So, it was adopted as solution in
Brazil the use of gasoline to assist the first start. The gasoline is
contained in an additional small reservoir implying on safety
concerns. Additionally, the use of gasoline causes an increase
of emissions compared with the use of only ethanol. Therefore,
in the present study a micro heat spreader containing an
electrical heater was developed in order to heat up the ethanol
and permit the engine start under ambient temperatures down to
-10 °C. Based on this, numerical simulations were performed
using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to predict
the thermal behaviour of the device. Then, based on these
simulations, a micro heat spreader was fabricated and
experimentally evaluated. Good agreement between
experimental and simulated results was obtained. Based on the
initial results, the heat spreader seems to attend the
requirements of its application.dc201