b'Engineer Innovation | Automotive & TransportationPredictive modeling of liquid-cooled charge-air Figure 1: LCAC integrated in 3-cylinder air intake manifold cooler heat exchangesBy Arnaud Demange, CFD Engineer, Sogefi Air & Cooling SAS - Air & Cooling Business UnitTo reduce the impact on themay need to be integrated inside the environment, car manufacturers haveair intake manifold plenum.been increasing their effort to improve fuel efficiency in turbochargedAs this integration is so close to the engines. The hot, charged air exitingcylinder heads, a very good prediction the turbocharger at boosted pressureof the air temperature distribution at must be cooled before entering theLCAC outlet and entering the cylinders combustion chamber via the air intakeis necessary. The simulation models manifold to avoid a density downfalltraditionally used were not able to resulting in efficiency loss. provide a refined modeling of the heat exchanges that was required so a new The core business at Sogefi Air &predictive simulation approach to Cooling is the engineering andmodel the heat transfer with an LCAC manufacture of advanced plasticwas introduced at Sogefi Air & Cooling.automotive components such as air intake manifolds. Due to packagingThis new methodology uses a hybrid constraints in specific applications, amodeling approach where the coolant liquid-cooled charge-air cooler (LCAC)is modeled as a fluid region and air / Water-glycol (50-50)Air (porous media)AluminumFigure 2: Details on 3 fins of the LCAC, air side Figure 3: Representation of regions66'