Cooling Capacity
Evaluates radiator heat-rejection capacity across measured operating points and reports pass/fail with thermal margin.
Portfolio Project
Radiator and Sidepod System Design
A cooling-system and packaging workflow for Mississippi State Formula SAE that links heat-rejection analysis, CFD porous-media modeling, and sidepod geometry generation into one design process.
Overview
Project Summary
This report consolidates the cooling and packaging workflow into three linked parts. It converts measured track data into a heat-rejection assessment, translates radiator geometry into Darcy–Forchheimer porous-media coefficients for CFD, and sizes sidepod geometry around a prescribed radiator center section. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
CFD Porous Media
Derives solver-ready porous-media resistance coefficients for use in CFD based on radiator geometry and an Ergun-style approach.
Sidepod Geometry
Generates inlet and outlet geometry, taper lengths, and half-angles around a defined radiator center section for CAD and CFD use.
Workflow
Design Workflow
- Generate sidepod geometry.
- Define the sidepod and radiator in CFD with porous-media characteristics.
- Collect the radiator-face velocity gradient from CFD in enough segments for high-fidelity heat-transfer analysis.
- Use the resulting velocity profile in the heat-transfer model to evaluate pass/fail conditions.
This workflow is stated explicitly in the report and ties the geometry, CFD, and heat-transfer calculations together as one iterative design process. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
Technical Details
Key Technical Scope
Heat-Rejection Model
The cooling-capacity analysis uses binned competition operating data, segment-by-segment radiator calculations, and an effectiveness–NTU approach to compare predicted radiator heat rejection against required coolant heat load across RPM and MAP operating points. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
Porous-Media CFD Model
The report develops porous-media coefficients for both SimScale and ANSYS Fluent conventions, allowing the radiator core to be represented as a homogenized porous block in CFD. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}
Geometry Output
The sidepod calculator determines inlet and outlet frame sizes, taper lengths, and half-angles from radiator length, tilt angle, center-section dimensions, area ratios, and overall sidepod length. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}
Representative Design Case
One example in the report uses a 60° radiator tilt, 0.50 inlet area ratio, 0.65 outlet area ratio, and 24.0 inch total length, with reported resultant half-angles of about 10.8° at the inlet and 32.2° at the outlet. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}
Highlights
Selected Project Outputs
Why this project matters
This project is valuable because it does not treat cooling, CFD, and packaging as isolated tasks. Instead, it creates a consistent engineering process that starts with measured vehicle data, moves through CFD-ready radiator modeling, and ends in manufacturable sidepod geometry for CAD and design iteration. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}
Embedded Document
Full Project PDF
The full report is embedded below.