Experimental and numerical simulation of single-phase flow in a micro heat spreader applied to the cold start of internal combustion engines fueled with ethanol

Abstract

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.

This work presents the results of numerical simulations and experimental evaluation of a micro heat spreader applied to the cold start of internal combustion engines fuelled with ethanol. At low temperatures (below 11 °C), using only ethanol as fuel, engines are unable to start. So, it was adopted as solution in Brazil the use of gasoline to assist the first start. The gasoline is contained in an additional small reservoir implying on safety concerns. Additionally, the use of gasoline causes an increase of emissions compared with the use of only ethanol. Therefore, in the present study a micro heat spreader containing an electrical heater was developed in order to heat up the ethanol and permit the engine start under ambient temperatures down to -10 °C. Based on this, numerical simulations were performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to predict the thermal behaviour of the device. Then, based on these simulations, a micro heat spreader was fabricated and experimentally evaluated. Good agreement between experimental and simulated results was obtained. Based on the initial results, the heat spreader seems to attend the requirements of its application.