Three-dimensional numerical study of a new intercooler design

Enhancing the intercooler performance seems to be an important objective for many manufactures and researchers, since it improves the engine efficiency in turbo-charged systems. Based on the Biomimicry method, this paper introduced a CFD study of a turbulent flow simulation through a new an intercooler design. Inspired by the respiratory system (bronchiol), new Y-shaped bionic obstacles were engraved into charge and cooling channels. The main purpose of the numerical examination was to investigate the effect of the cooling Reynolds number Recool and the engraved shape on its thermal performance. The standard k-ε turbulence mode was selected to analyze a cross flow air-to-air plate fin heat exchanger, with a cooling Reynolds number Recooling range of 6000–1,000,000, and a constant charging Reynolds number Recharging of 6290 using Ansys Fluent R15. The achieved numerical results were verified and validated to confirm the reliability of our method. The temperature and velocity contours were introduced and evaluated. Compared to the classical intercooler model, the obtained results showed a better enhancement with the new proposed bionic model in terms of thermal effectiveness by 97.66%. © 2022