Objective This lab aims to analyze the data collected and determine the experimental time constant of the thermal couples installed in the tube of a charge air cooler (CAC). The study-state region of the data is necessary so the engineers can build a Computational Fluid Dynamic model that predicts the real life condition. Modeling is a far more economical means to study real life issues. However, the model must be accurately correlated to be useful.

Background Automotive applications, atmospheric air enters the air induction tube and is sent through the turbo charger for compression, as shown in Figure 1. The turbocharger and CAC are introduced in the powertrain system to compress (IC application) or EGR (diesel application) and cool the air, respectively. The result is denser air, which increases horsepower improves fuel economy output, and reduces emissions. There have been concerns about the performance of the CAC, so a team of engineers was assembled to conduct an experiment to refine its design.

Description of Problem Charge air flows through aluminum tubes of a CAC to remove enough heat to achieve the required temperature for efficient engine operation. It has been suggested that the rectangular to may not be the most efficient design to achieve the best performance and therefore hes being studied. A singular rectangular tube is analyzed in the study.

Experimental Setup A CAC testing rig was designed to stimulate conditions the CAC experiences during vehicle operations to understand its current performance. Airflow, representing charge air, of a controlled relative humidity (RH), temperature, pressure, and air velocity rate is passed through a single tube of a CAC. The temperature at fourteen locations along the length of the tube was measured from these known conditions. One CAC tube was instrumented with fourteen 36-gauge thermocouples along the length of the tube.

Requirements: set of experimental data is provided for your review. Determine: The precondition time required to achieve study state condition. The steady state time constant. Do you recommend a data collection and why. Recommend point in the data to correlate any simulation model to.

Use the graph/sheet to compare for thermocouples 14 and 15

Thank you

TC15 TC15 TC14 Axis Title