Radiator (engine cooling)

For other uses, see Radiator (disambiguation).

A typical engine coolant radiator used in an automobile

Radiators are used for cooling internal combustion engines, mainly in automobiles but also in piston-engined aircraft, railway locomotives, motorcycles, stationary generating plant or any similar use of such an engine.

Internal combustion engines are often cooled by passing a liquid called engine coolant through the engine block, where it is heated, then through the radiator itself where it loses heat to the atmosphere, and then back to the engine in a closed loop. Engine coolant is usually water-based, but may also be oil. It is common to employ a water pump to force the engine coolant to circulate, and also for an axial fan to force air through the radiator.

Automobiles and motorcycles

In automobiles and motorcycles with a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine, a radiator is connected to channels running through the engine and cylinder head, through which a liquid (coolant) is pumped. This liquid may be water (in climates where water is unlikely to freeze), but is more commonly a mixture of water and antifreeze in proportions appropriate to the climate. Antifreeze itself is usually ethylene glycol or propylene glycol (with a small amount of corrosion inhibitor).

The radiator transfers the heat from the fluid inside to the air outside, thereby cooling the engine. Radiators are also often used to cool automatic transmission fluids, air conditioner refrigerant, intake air, and sometimes to cool motor oil or power steering fluid. Radiators are typically mounted in a position where they receive airflow from the forward movement of the vehicle, such as behind a front grill. Where engines are mid- or rear-mounted, it is common to mount the radiator behind a front grill to achieve sufficient airflow, even though this requires long coolant pipes. Alternatively, the radiator may draw air from the flow over the top of the vehicle or from a side-mounted grill. For long vehicles, such as buses, side airflow is most common for engine and transmission cooling and top airflow most common for air conditioner cooling.

Radiator construction

Automobile radiators are constructed of a pair of header tanks, linked by a core with many narrow passageways, thus a high surface area relative to its volume. This core is usually made of stacked layers of metal sheet, pressed to form channels and soldered or brazed together. For many years radiators were made from brass or copper cores soldered to brass headers. Modern radiators save money and weight by using plastic headers and may use aluminium cores. This construction is less easily repaired than traditional materials.

Honeycomb radiator tubes

An earlier construction method was the honeycomb radiator. Round tubes were swaged into hexagons at their ends, then stacked together and soldered. As they only touched at their ends, this formed what became in effect a solid water tank with many air tubes through it.^[1]

Some vintage cars use radiator cores made from coiled tube, a less-efficient but simpler construction.

Coolant pumps

Thermosysphon cooling system of 1937, without circulating pump

Radiators first used downward vertical flow, driven solely by a thermosyphon effect. Coolant is heated in the engine, becomes less dense, and so rises. As the radiator cools the fluid, the coolant becomes denser and falls. This effect is sufficient for low-power stationary engines, but inadequate for all but the earliest automobiles. All automobiles for many years have used centrifugal pumps to circulate the engine coolant because natural circulation has very low flow rates.

Heater

A system of valves or baffles, or both, is usually incorporated to simultaneously operate a small radiator inside the vehicle. This small radiator, and the associated blower fan, is called the heater core, and serves to warm the cabin interior. Like the radiator, the heater core acts by removing heat from the engine. For this reason, automotive technicians often advise operators to turn on the heater and set it to high if the engine is overheating.

Temperature control

Waterflow control

Car engine thermostat

The engine temperature is primarily controlled by a wax-pellet type of thermostat, a valve which opens once the engine has reached its optimum operating temperature.

When the engine is cold, the thermostat is closed except for a small bypass flow so that the thermostat experiences changes to the coolant temperature as the engine warms up. Engine coolant is directed by the thermostat to the inlet of the circulating pump and is returned directly to the engine, bypassing the radiator. Directing water to circulate only through the engine allows the temperature to reach optimum operating temperature as quickly as possible whilst avoiding localised "hot spots." Once the coolant reaches the thermostat's activation temperature, it opens, allowing water to flow through the radiator to prevent the temperature rising higher.

Once at optimum temperature, the thermostat controls the flow of engine coolant to the radiator so that the engine continues to operate at optimum temperature. Under peak load conditions, such as driving slowly up a steep hill whilst heavily laden on a hot day, the thermostat will be approaching fully open because the engine will be producing near to maximum power while the velocity of air flow across the radiator is low. (The velocity of air flow across the radiator has a major effect on its ability to dissipate heat.) Conversely, when cruising fast downhill on a motorway on a cold night on a light throttle, the thermostat will be nearly closed because the engine is producing little power, and the radiator is able to dissipate much more heat than the engine is producing. Allowing too much flow of coolant to the radiator would result in the engine being over cooled and operating at lower than optimum temperature. A side effect of this would be that the passenger compartment heater would not be able to put out enough heat to keep the passengers warm. The fuel efficiency would also suffer.

The thermostat is therefore constantly moving throughout its range, responding to changes in vehicle operating load, speed and external temperature, to keep the engine at its optimum operating temperature.

Airflow control

Other factors influence the temperature of the engine, including radiator size and the type of radiator fan. The size of the radiator (and thus its cooling capacity) is chosen such that it can keep the engine at the design temperature under the most extreme conditions a vehicle is likely to encounter (such as climbing a mountain whilst fully loaded on a hot day).

Airflow speed through a radiator is a major influence on the heat it loses. Vehicle speed affects this, in rough proportion to the engine effort, thus giving crude self-regulatory feedback. Where an additional cooling fan is driven by the engine, this also tracks engine speed similarly.

Engine-driven fans are often regulated by a viscous-drive clutch from the drivebelt, which slips and reduces the fan speed at low temperatures. This improves fuel efficiency by not wasting power on driving the fan unnecessarily. On modern vehicles, further regulation of cooling rate is provided by either variable speed or cycling radiator fans. Electric fans are controlled by a thermostatic switch or the engine control unit. Electric fans also have the advantage of giving good airflow and cooling at low engine revs or when stationary, such as in slow-moving traffic.

Before the development of viscous-drive and electric fans, engines were fitted with simple fixed fans that drew air through the radiator at all times. Vehicles whose design required the installation of a large radiator to cope with heavy work at high temperatures, such as commercial vehicles and tractors would often run cool in cold weather under light loads, even with the presence of a thermostat, as the large radiator and fixed fan caused a rapid and significant drop in coolant temperature as soon as the thermostat opened. This problem can be solved by fitting a radiator blind to the radiator which can be adjusted to partially or fully block the airflow through the radiator. At its simplest the blind is a roll of material (such as canvas or rubber that is unfurled along the length of the radiator to cover the desired portion. Some older vehicles have a series of shutters that can be adjusted from the driver's seat to provide a degree of control. Some modern cars have a series of shutters that are automatically opened and closed by the engine control unit to provide a balance of cooling and aerodynamics as needed.^[2]

These AEC Regent III RT buses are fitted with radiator blinds, seen here covering the lower half of the radiators.

Coolant pressure

Because the thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines increases with internal temperature the coolant is kept at higher-than-atmospheric pressure to increase its boiling point. A calibrated pressure-relief valve is usually incorporated in the radiator's fill cap. This pressure varies between models, but typically ranges from 9 psi (0.6 bar) to 15 psi (1.0 bar).

As the coolant expands with increasing temperature, its pressure in the closed system must increase. Ultimately, the pressure relief valve opens, and excess fluid is dumped into an overflow container. Fluid overflow ceases when the thermostat modulates the rate of cooling to keep the temperature of the coolant at optimum. When the engine coolant cools and contracts (as conditions change or when the engine is switched off), the fluid is returned to the radiator through additional valving in the cap.

Engine coolant

Before World War II, engine coolant was usually plain water. Antifreeze was used solely to control freezing, and this was often only done in cold weather.

Development in high-performance aircraft engines required improved coolants with higher boiling points, leading to the adoption of glycol or water-glycol mixtures. These led to the adoption of glycols for their antifreeze properties.

Since the development of aluminium or mixed-metal engines, corrosion inhibition has become even more important than antifreeze, and in all regions and seasons.

Boiling or overheating

On this type system, if the coolant in the overflow container gets too low, fluid transfer to overflow will cause an increased loss by vaporizing the engine coolant.

Severe engine damage can be caused by overheating, by overloading or system defect, when the coolant is evaporated to a level below the water pump. This can happen without warning, because at that point, the sending units are not exposed to the coolant to indicate the excessive temperature.

Opening a hot radiator drops the system pressure immediately and may cause a sudden ebullition of super-heated coolant. Therefore, since opening the cap on a hot radiator can result in steam burns to the unwary person, radiator caps often contains a mechanism that attempts to relieve the internal pressure before the cap can be fully opened.

History

The invention of the automobile water radiator is attributed to Karl Benz. Wilhelm Maybach designed the first honeycomb radiator for the Mercedes 35hp.^[3]

Supplementary radiators

It is sometimes necessary for a car to be equipped with a second, or auxiliary, radiator to increase the cooling capacity, when the size of the original radiator cannot be increased. The second radiator is plumbed in series with the main radiator in the circuit. This was the case when the Audi 100 was first turbocharged creating the 200. These are not to be confused with intercoolers.

Some engines have an oil cooler, a separate small radiator to cool the engine oil. Cars with an automatic transmission often have extra connections to the radiator, allowing the transmission fluid to transfer its heat to the coolant in the radiator. These may be either oil-air radiators, as for a smaller version of the main radiator. More simply they may be oil-water coolers, where an oil pipe is inserted inside the water radiator. As water is denser than air, this offers comparable cooling (within limits) from a less complex and thus cheaper oil cooler. Less commonly, power steering fluid, brake fluid, and other hydraulic fluids may be cooled by an auxiliary radiator on a vehicle.

Turbo charged or supercharged engines may have an intercooler, which is an air-to-air or air-to-water radiator used to cool the incoming air charge—not to cool the engine.

Aircraft

Aircraft with liquid-cooled piston engines (usually inline engines rather than radial) also require radiators. As airspeed is higher than for cars, these are efficiently cooled in flight, and so do not require large areas or cooling fans. Many high-performance aircraft however suffer extreme overheating problems when idling on the ground - a mere 7 minutes for a Spitfire.^[4]

Surface radiators

Reducing drag is a major goal in aircraft design, including the design of cooling systems. An early technique was to take advantage of an aircraft's abundant airflow to replace the honeycomb core (many surfaces, with a high ratio of surface to volume) by a surface mounted radiator. This uses a single surface blended into the fuselage or wing skin, with the coolant flowing through pipes at the back of this surface.

As they are so dependent on airspeed, surface radiators are even more prone to overheating when ground-running. Racing aircraft such as the Supermarine S.6B, a racing seaplane with radiators built into the upper surfaces of its floats, have been described as "being flown on the temperature gauge" as the main limit on their performance.^[5]

Surface radiators have also been used by a few high-speed racing cars, such as Malcolm Campbell's Blue Bird of 1928.

Radiator thrust

An aircraft radiator comprises a duct wherein heat is added. As a result, this is effectively a jet engine. High-performance piston aircraft with well-designed low-drag radiators (notably the P-51 Mustang) derived thrust from this effect. The thrust was significant enough to offset the drag of the duct the radiator was enclosed in and allowed the aircraft to achieve zero cooling drag. At one point, there were even plans to equip the Spitfire with a ramjet, by injecting fuel into this duct after the radiator and igniting it. Although ramjets normally require a supersonic airspeed, this light-up speed can be reduced where heat is being added, such as in a radiator duct.

Steam cooling

Pressurized cooling systems operate by adding heat to the coolant fluid, causing it to rise in temperature in inverse proportion to its specific heat capacity. With the need to keep the final temperature below boiling point, this limits the amount of heat that a given mass-flow of coolant can dissipate.

Attempts were made with aero-engines of the 1930s, notably the Rolls-Royce Goshawk, to exceed this limit by allowing the coolant to boil. This absorbs an amount of heat equivalent to the specific heat of vaporization, which for water is more than five times the energy required to heat the same quantity of water from 0°C to 100°C. Obviously this allows the necessary cooling effect with far less mass of coolant.

The practical difficulty was the need to provide condensers rather than radiators. Cooling was now needed not just for hot, dense liquid coolant, but for low-density vapor. This required a condenser far larger, and with higher drag, than a radiator. For aircraft, especially high-speed aircraft, it was soon realized this configuration was unworkable and so evaporative cooling was abandoned.

See also

• Coolant
• Heater core
• Intercooler
• Internal combustion engine (ICE)
• Waste heat

References

1. ^ Rankin Kennedy C.E. (1912). The Book of the Motor Car. Caxton. 
2. ^ Kerr, Jim. "Auto Tech: Radiator shutters", autos.ca, April 6, 2011, accessed April 12, 2011.
3. ^ "Mercedes 35hp". http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-Mercedes-35-hp.htm. 
4. ^ Alfred Price (2007). Spitfire Manual. Haynes. ISBN 1844254623. 
5. ^ Michael Donne (1981). Leader of the Skies (Rolls-Royce 75th anniversary). Frederick Muller. ISBN 0-584-10476-6. 

Sources

• Opel Omega & Senator Service and Repair Manual. Haynes. 1996. ISBN 1-85960-342-4. 

External links

• Radiator Replacement and Troubleshooting Guides
• How Car Cooling Systems Work
• Powertrain Cooling Community Site