Numerical investigation on air-cooling enhancement of a motor cycle engine by varying fins geometry

Abstract

Two-wheeler vehicles are equipped with an air-cooled cooling system. Internal combustion engines generate heat to obtain mechanical energy but non-convertible heat energy is dissipated from engine heat and walls. Air-cooled fins provide extra material with an extended surface area to enhance heat transfer rate. The performance of fins can be increased by changing different parameters like material, geometry, number of fins etc. Present work combines the changes in the fin geometry, shape, and pitch to maximize the heat transfer rate as compared to earlier available works. Modelling of 100 cc engine with cooling fins is recreated using CAD software SOLIDWORKS. A heat thermal analysis of original and modified models was done with Mechanical ANSYS and Fluent. In the thermal analysis, temperature variation along the length of the fins was analyzed. The modified model was able to achieve an 8.5 % increase in heat transfer rate with air-motion as compared to the existing original 100 cc engine cylinder.