Xrad

A heat exchanger is a component used to transfer heat between one or more fluids. In an internal combustion engine, heat exchangers are used to remove heat from the coolants used in circuits such as jacket water, charge air, low temperature aftercooler, transmission oil and fuel. Where engines are used in industrial/off-highway applications, a heat exchanger is also used in the hydraulic oil circuit.

As multiple heat exchangers are often required for an engine, the typical requirement from an end user is for a compact and efficient cooling system package due to the constraint in cooling envelope space. It is therefore essential that each heat exchanger within the cooling system is sized accurately to ensure efficient operation and that it is economical.

A tube-fin heat exchanger, often referred to as a radiator, is predominantly used to cool the jacket water circuit of an engine; coolant is circulated through the engine block where it becomes heated, then through the radiator where the heat is dissipated to the atmosphere by forcing cooling air past the radiator, and then returned back to the engine block. In a similar way, a radiator is also used to cool the low temperature aftercooler circuit of an engine but in this case the coolant is circulated through the aftercooler block.

Xrad is software that allows a user to carry out thermal and hydraulic design of a tube-fin heat exchanger. Xrad contains a Library which stores geometric data of Tubes and Fins which are used to create pre-configured Cores. By entering additional Geometry and Flow Data, the Performance Data of a core can be calculated and if required, the Operating Point Data can also be calculated.

A unique feature of Xrad is that thermal and hydraulic performance of each Core within the Library can be matched with test data.