Investigation on Suitability of Aluminium to Copper in a Radiator

During the development of automobile it was a bigger challenge to prevent the engine & engine components from melting & damages because the heat generated & temperature inside the cylinder is more than the melting points of engine components due to combustion of fuel inside the cylinder. Many researchers & scientist started working for making the arrangement to dissipate the heat of considerable amount to avoid such bigger problem otherwise engine will seize. After a lot of research work on different types of materials to conduct the heat efficiently they came to conclusion that copper is the best material having good thermal conductivity of 385 watt/m-K can be used in the form of heat exchanger & finally they designed a radiator called COPPER RADIATOR. It is in continuous use in all types of automobile across the world. Over a period due to various pressure of availability, manufacturability, performance, reliability, cost, handling, weight researchers started working on use of alternate materials in a radiator in place of copper to match the performance same as copper & getting other benefits. Attempts have been tried on different kinds of materials & finally found that can solve our problem & it will meet most of our objectives & requirements. So, finally it has been decided to make Aluminium in place of Copper radiators which will give benefits in performance, reliability, cost, availability, easy in handling & manufacturing. The design & development techniques will be discussed subsequently. The effort of this project is to replace the costly copper radiator used in automobile by radiator for better reliability, cost benefit, weight reduction & desirable performance. The radiator has a number of features that make it very attractive for vehicle applications in general. Superior durability and reliability in conjunction with its excellent specific values for costs, performance and weight warrant a favorable solution for Heavy Duty Trucks, tractors, Car, earth movers & other Automobile segments. This methodology examines the results based on design, lab testing, and field testing in actual condition. It reviews the field experience compared to Copper/Brass radiators, examines design and mounting features. Durability, external and internal corrosion resistance are emphasized as essential characteristics. A special focus is the thermodynamics of radiators. The result obtained has been summarized as below:(a) Radiator is able to transfer the heat of 27.95 KW same as Copper Radiator. This is the 1/3 rd amount of heat generated in the engine to be dissipated. (b) Cost Reduction of Amount Rs 1923/- it is about 49% saving against existing cost of Copper Radiator. (c) Weight Reduction of 5 Kg, it is 52.08% reduction in weight due to use of Radiator.(d) Reliability & Field Performance is as per copper Radiator, there is no field failure within the warranty period in all types of applications.