For pleasure comes cooling.
Jean Baptiste Moliere
LRc 01272b
All-aluminum radiator. All-aluminum radiator. Radiator with ultra-small pitch cooling tubes (photo 1)
Overheating can be fatal: “drive” the head of the block, “drag” pistons, etc. But the lack of heat is also not a gift.
What is fraught with low temperature? A cold engine is overgrown with dirt - fuel and oil deposits that disrupt the cooling and lubrication of the engine, interfere with proper combustion in the cylinders, and make it difficult to fill them with a fresh charge. In addition, low temperature leads to an increase in thermal stresses! Near the combustion chamber, heating is fast, but at a distance from it, the temperature drops. The colder the motor, the higher the voltage in the parts.
Optimum engine temperature is supported by a car radiator. It is curious that the appearance of aluminum radiators in the first G8s was a real shock for many. Heat dissipation is worse; what to solder is incomprehensible: invented, in general … But is aluminum really so bad? Of course not.
In the era of the revolutionary Chernyshevsky and his rather strange novel “What to do?” This metal was generally predicted to be either gold or platinum … However, then it fell into the category of publicly available material, as a result of which the auto industry went 99% to lumen radiators. Strength is higher, stiffness is greater, mass is 60% less. Moreover, it is aluminum, unlike copper, that allows you to create the most complex radiator cores - with a wider and longer tube, with "bells" at the ends, without the use of steel crossbars, etc. Well, the price factor decided everything: aluminum is 4 times cheaper than copper!
And yet - how about maintainability? The problem slowly self-destructed: repair of parts today is not held in high esteem. In practice, only expensive and rare radiators are repaired. In other cases, it is easier to change the old to the new - both time and money are saved. As for the plastic radiators, they have not yet been seen. A few years ago, an article flashed about American scientists who stated that they did not see problems with the manufacture of plastic, which had sufficient thermal conductivity for the radiator. However, so far the matter has not gone further than discussions: it must be assumed that the manufacture of such plastic is a difficult and expensive pleasure. Therefore, in the near future nothing of this is expected.
radiator Porsche 991
Porsche 991 radiator in a section (photo 2) Porshe 991 radiator in a section (photo 2) Porshe 991 radiator in a section (photo 2)
And what is expected? The trends, in general, are understandable: compactness, complex geometry … The dimensions of the front end of the car are reduced, the heat load of the power unit is growing, the geometry of the engine compartment is changing. Therefore, in modern "radiator engineering" the following is observed:
- the widespread use of aluminum in the core of the radiator, the complete rejection of copper and brass;
- the use of "aerodynamic" flat oval tubes;
- transition to the ultra-small pitch of the cooling tubes - up to 5 mm (photo 1);
- an increase in the volume of cooling lamellas, the use of double fins;
- the complication of the shape of the cooling tubes, “bells” at the ends of the tubes, internal turbulators, external lamellas on the tubes (photo 2);
- diagonal arrangement of cooling tubes, etc.
