Multiphysics Modeling and Optimization of Automotive Heat

Exchanger for Exhaust Heat Recovery.

Asutosh Prasad​*1​ and Raj CN Thiagarajan​2
ATOA Scientific Technologies, Bengaluru
*Corresponding author: ATOA Scientific Technologies Pvt Ltd, 204, Regent Prime, 48 Whitefield Main Road,
Whitefield, Bengaluru 560066, India, www.atoa.com, [email protected]

1.0 Introduction:- waste energy. The major parts of conventional

An Internal Combustion Engine (IC Engine) is a automotive exhaust system are
heat engine where combustion of air-fuel mixture ● Exhaust Manifold
occurs in a combustion chamber. The combustion ● Manifold Pipe and Connector
of chemical fuels produces energies in form of heat ● Exhaust Pipe and Elbows
and pressure. The pressure energy then converted to ● Catalytic Converter
mechanical work through piston, connecting rod ● Muffler
and crankshaft while the heat energy is exhausted
to atmosphere. The Internal Combustion Engine
(ICE) does not efficiently convert chemical
energies to mechanical energy. A majority of this
energy is dissipated to engine coolant and
atmosphere as heat. Approximately 70% energy is
wastage while remaining 30% used for vehicle
operation which is a huge loss in terms of fuel
efficiency. Rather than directly increasing fuel
efficiency of the engine, exhaust heat recovery
technologies are proposed to improve fuel ( Figure 1.1 : Conventional Automotive Exhaust System )
efficiency indirectly by converting waste heat to 1.3 Internal Combustion Engine:-
electrical energy. Developing an optimized exhaust Internal combustion engines are mechanical devices
heat exchanger for automobiles is a challenging that produce work from fossil fuel combustion.
task in automotive industry. The advancement in Internal combustion engines are most commonly
multiphysics cae simulation technologies makes it used in automobiles due to its portability and high
possible to design complex exhaust heat exchanger power to weight ratio. The internal combustion
for efficient heat recovery, which energy can later engine is designed in a manner that produced high
be used to produce useful work. In this work a heat pressure from fuel combustion which can converted
exchanger model is developed for efficient heat into kinetic energy. The production of heat and
recovery from exhaust gas while reducing the heat toxic gases from fuel combustion is released to the
energy dissipated to atmosphere. The heat transfer, atmosphere. The major components of an internal
cfd and design modules of COMSOL Multiphysics combustion engine are
software is used to develop the optimize exhaust ● Cylinder Block
heat exchanger for exhaust heat recovery. ● Piston
● Connecting Rod
Keywords:- Heat Exchanger, Exhaust Heat, Heat ● Crankshaft
Recovery. ● Crankcase
1.2 Automotive Exhaust System:- ● Camshaft
The exhaust system is a very vital component of an ● Sparkplug
automotive. Initially it was developed as a simple ● Fuel injector
duct system to prevent toxic exhaust gases entering ● Flywheel
to the cabin. Over the years the responsibility and
the job of an exhaust system is grown. The modern
exhaust system not only guides the toxic gases to
the atmosphere but also reduces engine noise and
play a vital role by increasing fuel efficiency. The
recent development is numerical modelling and
heat recovery technologies makes it possible to
design efficient exhaust systems for better fuel
efficiency. In recent findings of energy conversion
and energy transmission its is estimated that a lots
of energy is lost to atmosphere as waste heat
through the exhaust system. More research is
focused on developing efficient exhaust system
which can reduce toxicity of exhaust gas, attenuate
engine noise and also harvest useful work from ( Figure 1.2 : Automotive IC Engine )
1.4 Heat Exchanger:- thermoelectric materials have a certain temperature
range while producing electricity. The desired
The heat exchanger is a mechanical device that
temperature range is required for the
used to transfer heat between two fluids with
thermoelements to produce electricity without
different temperatures. In a conventional heat
failure. A high temperature may leads to melting of
exchanger the fluids are separated by metal walls to
thermoelements while in working condition, hence
prevent direct contact and mixing. Heat exchangers
the optimization and placement of heat exchanger is
are most commonly used in power plants, chemical
performed for efficient power generation without
plants, electronic cooling, air-conditioning,
any failure.
refrigeration and automotive applications. The heat
exchanger design in this experiment for exhaust
heat recovery is given in figure 1.3. The heat
exchanger is designed suitable for Thermoelectric
application where temperature differential is needed
for electric power generation. In this paper more
importance is given to the heat exchanger design
and optimization for maximum waste heat recovery
suitable for thermoelectric effects.

( Figure 1.4 : Exhaust System Computational Model )

2.3 Model Material Properties:-
The material properties such as Density, Thermal
Conductivity, Heat capacity for engine and exhaust
system components are given in the below table.
The material definition for engine and exhaust
system is shown in figure 1.5. Exhaust pipes are
defined as structural steel. Catalytic converter body
and Muffler bodies are defined as stainless steel.
( Figure 1.3 : Heat Exchanger ) The Catalyst elements in catalytic converter are
2.0 Numerical Simulations:- defined as platinum. The fluid domains for the
couple physics are defined as carbon dioxide for
2.1 Exhaust System Numerical Simulation:- exhaust gas and water as coolant. The materials
A conventional computational model for exhaust used in the simulation model are taken from the
system heat recovery is designed in COMSOL comsol material library.
Multiphysics as shown in figure 1.4. The exhaust
system computational model is consist of exhaust Materials Cp (J/kgK) K (W/mK) ⍴ (kg/m​3​)
pipe, catalytic converter and muffler. The engine
Structural Steel 445 44.5 7850
model is an additional simulation where we can
find the exhaust flow parametres which later can be Stainless Steel 530 17 8.07E-6
used to perform multiphysics cae simulation on the
exhaust system. The optimized heat exchanger Platinum 133 71.6 21450
model is designed suitable for thermoelectric power ( Table 1 : Material Properties )
generation while recovering waste heat energy and
improving fuel efficiency. The initial boundary
conditions for heat exchanger is taken from the
simulation results of exhaust system. The
temperature distribution in exhaust system and heat
exchanger will help to find optimize location of
heat exchanger for thermoelectric power
generation. Thermoelectric power generation works
on the principle of Seebeck effects, where the
thermoelectric semiconductor materials have
temperature dependent seebeck coefficient, thermal
conductivity and electrical conductivity. The ( Figure 1.5 : Material Definition )
2.4 Physics and Governing Equations:- Q​p​ = Work done by pressure changes
Multiple physics couple numerically are heat Q​vd​ = Viscous dissipation in fluid
transfer in solid, heat transfer in fluid and turbulent
q = Heat flux by conduction (W/m​2​)
fluid flow on the domain of exhaust gas, coolant
and components by help of comsol multiphysics. k = Thermal conductivity (W/m.K) (Heat Transfer)
The physics involved in computational model are
k = Turbulent kinetic energy (Turbulent Flow)
mentioned with equations as belows.
(1) Heat Transfer in Solid:- T = Absolute temperature (K)
The heat transfer in solid interface is used to model
p = Pressure (Pa)
heat transfer in solids by conduction, convection
and radiation. The temperature equation defined in u = Velocity Vector (m/s)
solid domains corresponds to the differential form
𝜇 = Dynamic Viscosity (Pa.s)
of the Fourier’s law that may contain additional
contributions like heat sources. F = Volume force vector (N/m​3​)
ρC p u.▽T + ▽.q = Q + Qted , q = − k ▽T V = Velocity (m/s)
(2) Heat Transfer in Fluid:- ep = Turbulent dissipation rate
The heat transfer in fluid interface is used to model
3.0 Automotive Engine Heat Transfer
heat transfer in fluid by conduction, convection and
Simulation:-
radiation. ​The temperature equation defined in fluid
domains corresponds to the convection-diffusion A 1.5 litre, inline 3 cylinder diesel engine from a
equation that may contain additional contributions hatchback passenger car is considered for this
like heat sources. simulation. The exhaust temperature produced from
the engine is taken as initial values for the exhaust
ρC p u.▽T + ▽.q = Q + Qp + Qvd , q = − k ▽T
system. The temperature distribution in the exhaust
(1) Turbulent Fluid Flow:- system is predicted as given in section 4.1. The
The Turbulent Flow, Low Re k-ε (spf) interface is engine cad model from comsol model library is
used for simulating single-phase flows at high included in this simulation.
Reynolds numbers. The physics interface is suitable 3.1 Boundary and Physics Definition-
for compressible flows and incompressible flows at
low mach numbers. The equations solved by the The heat transfer in engine model is solve using the
Turbulent Flow, Low Re k-ε interface are the heat equation in comsol. The temperature value of
Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) 450C is applied at the inner chambers of the engine
equations for conservation of momentum and the and an atmospheric natural convection heat transfer
continuity equation for conservation of mass. coefficient (10 Watt) is applied to remaining
boundaries of the engine. The materials for the
ρ(u.▽)u = engine component is defined as structural steel.
▽.[− pI + (μ + μT )(V u + (▽u)T ) − 32 (μ + μT )(▽.u)I] + F Material properties for structural steel can be found
from table 1 in section 2.3.
▽.(ρu) = 0

ρ(u.▽)κ = ▽ [(μ + ) ▽κ] + P

μT
σκ κ −ρ∈

ρ(u.▽)κ = ▽ [(μ + ) ▽ε] + C

μT ε 2
σε ε1 κ P κ − C ε2 ρ εκ

ε = ep
2
μT = ρC μ κε

[ T
P k = μT ▽u : (▽u + (▽u) − 23 (▽.u)
2
]− 2
3
ρκ▽.u

Where
⍴ = Density (kg/m​3​)
( Figure 1.6 : Automotive engine model )
Cp = Specific heat (J/kg.K)
3.2 Numerical Solver:-
Q = Heat source (W/m​3​)
A fully coupled, direct, stationery study is
Qted = Thermoelastic effects implemented to the automotive engine heat transfer
model to predict the temperature distribution.
3.3 Result Evaluation:-
The temperature distribution contour plots are
plotted graphically as shown in figure 2.8.

( Figure 1.8 : Computational Model of Exhaust System )

4.2 Numerical Solver:-
A fully coupled, direct, stationery study is
implemented to the automotive exhaust system to
predict the temperature distribution. The
Non-Isothermal physics node is added to the model
(Figure 1.7 : Engine temperature distribution)
for coupling of multiple physics as mentioned in
A maximum temperature of 400C is obtained inside section 4.1.
the combustion chamber, which is released to
4.3 Result Evaluation:-
atmosphere through the exhaust system. The results
from the engine thermal simulation will help to The temperature distribution, exhaust pressure and
define the boundary condition for exhaust heat fluid velocity magnitudes are plotted graphically as
recovery system. shown in below contour plots.
4.0 Exhaust System Multiphysics Simulation:-
A multiphysics cae model for the automotive
exhaust system is developed using COMSOL
Multiphysics software package. The computational
model of the exhaust system is developed as shown
in figure 1.8. The included components in
numerical model are exhaust pipe, catalytic
converter and muffler.
4.1 Boundary and Physics Definitions:-
The numerical coupling of heat transfer and fluid
flow physics is implemented on the exhaust system.
( Figure 1.9 : Exhaust System Temperature Distribution )
The model consisting of fluid domain as exhaust
gas and solid domains as metal component. The
turbulent fluid flow, heat transfer in fluid and heat
transfer in solid interfaces are coupled numerically
to perform multiphysics cae simulation. The
material definition for the model can be found from
figure 1.5 and the material properties from table 1
in section 2.3. ​The exhaust gas temperature
predicted from the fuel combustion ( 400​C ) is taken
as inlet exhaust temperature. Turbulent flow
Reynolds Averaged Navier Stoke and heat transfer
in fluid equations solved for the fluid domain while
heat transfer in solid equations are defined to solid
domains. The governing equations for the involved ( Figure 2.0 : Exhaust System Pressure Distribution )
physics can be found from section 2.4.
 ( Figure 2.1 : Exhaust Gas Velocity Magnitude )
The maximum temperature occurence is predicted
to be nearer the engine while lesser at the tailpipe. ( Figure 2.2 : TEG Device Boundary Definition )
There is a fluctuation in temperature propagation 5.2 Numerical Solver:-
predicted at catalytic converter, which shows, how
external devices attached to exhaust system can A fully coupled, direct, stationery study is
play a role in temperature distribution. From the implemented to the heat exchanger model to predict
temperature distribution results in exhaust system the temperature distribution.
the desired position for heat exchanger is predicted 5.3 Result Evaluation:-
to be in between catalytic converter and muffler.
The temperature, pressure and velocity field
5.0 Automotive Heat Exchanger Multiphysics contour plots are plotted graphically as shown in
Simulation:- below pictures.
An optimized heat exchanger model is developed in
COMSOL. The heat exchanger will be attached to
exhaust system in between catalytic converter and
muffler. The heat exchanger’s body is made of
stainless steel sheets to prevent mixing of coolant
and exhaust gas as well as prevent corrosion. There
are two coolant chamber attached opposites to each
other as shown in figure 2.2.
5.1 Boundary and Physics Definition-
The numerical boundary definition for heat
exchanger model is defined as in figure 2.2. The
exhaust gas temperature predicted from exhaust
(Figure 2.3 : Heat exchanger temperature Distribution)
system (250​C​) is taken as inlet exhaust temperature
and the normal temperature value for water is taken
as 13​C​. The corrugated chambers are designed to
increase coolant flow distance and increase flow
time for better thermal management. The Turbulent
flow Reynolds Averaged Navier Stoke and heat
transfer in fluid equations solved for the fluid
domain while heat transfer in solid equations are
defined for solid domains. The governing equations
for the involved physics can be found from section
2.4.

( Figure 2.4 : Heat exchanger pressure distribution )

 of numerical simulation. The numerical model of
automotive heat recovery exhaust system and heat
exchanger is designed using comsol multiphysics.
The predicted temperature distribution in the
exhaust system and heat exchanger shows potential
in maximum exhaust waste heat recovery.
Simulation results of heat exchanger found to be a
suitable condition for thermoelectric power
generation. The predicted simulation results can
further be helpful in optimized design and
placement of heat exchanger for maximum heat
recovery.
( Figure 2.5 : Exhaust flow streamline )
6.1 References:-
[1]Heat Transfer in Internal Combustion Engines,
C. S. WANG and G. F. BERRY, Energy and
Environmental Systems Division, Argonne
National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439
[2]A review of car waste heat recovery system
utilizing thermoelectric generators and heat pipes,
B. Orr, A. Akbarzadeh, M. Mochizuki, R. Singh,
Applied thermal engineering 101 (2016) 490-495,
SinceDirect.
[3]Exhaust waste heat recovery, Dr. hosung Lee,
February 18, 2015.
( Figure 2.6 : Coolant flow streamline )
[4]​Fundamental of Heat and Mass Transfer, Frank
P. Incropera.
[5]​Waste Heat Recovery Technologies, US
Department of Energy, March 2008.
6.2 Acknowledgement:-
This research was supported by Research &
Innovation Department of ATOA Scientific
Technologies, Bengaluru, India. The author would
like to thank the technical team, ​who provided
insight and expertise that greatly assisted the
research.
( Figure 2.7 : Heat exchanger fluid flow streamlines )
The maximum temperature occurence is predicted
to be at the entrance of the heat exchanger. The
temperature distribution in the heat exchanger as
shown in figure 2.3 is suitable for thermoelectric
power generation. The thermoelectric modules can
be attached safely in between exhaust chamber and
coolant chamber to produce electric power which
can improve fuel efficiency.
6.0 Conclusion and future work:-
Waste heat is an inevitable process in automotive
internal combustion engine. Most of heat is lost to
atmosphere through the exhaust system as waste
heat. The waste heat produced during vehicle
operation decreases fuel economy. In this paper a
solution of waste heat recovery technology and
method for better fuel economy is proposed by help