Do all teams use water cooled intercoolers now?

[gambler]

Is there a speculation thread in here somewhere that studies air/air compared to water/air. I would like to know the volume of air required for each to achieve the same amount of heat reduction. I know specific numbers cant be known, but generaly if one requires more air than another would be the answer I'm looking for. Thanks in advance.

[riff_raff]

There are many factors involved when it comes to selecting the best heat exchanger for a given application. With a charge air cooler, things like pressure drop and flow losses in the circuit can be very important. So the compactness of a liquid/air heat exchanger core has some advantages over an air/air exchanger core, especially if a separate low temp liquid coolant circuit can be used, and the compressor outlet air temps are high. A liquid coolant like water has the advantage of a much greater specific heat value than air. So the mass flow of water required to transfer a given amount of thermal energy for a given temp delta in most applications will be far lower than using air. But using an air/liquid charge cooler requires a more complex arrangement of coolant circuits.

[PlatinumZealot]

BMW has interestingly used Air to air inter-cooling on it's turbo inline engines in the regular sedan/SUV, air to water in the turbo V8's, and air to water again on the new M3 turbo six.

Most race cars up till now usually use air to air too... This is the lemans cars that run for 24 hours.

I can only Imagine that air to water is more stable in slow speed because the water acts as a reservoir.

[gruntguru]

Is there a speculation thread in here somewhere that studies air/air compared to water/air. I would like to know the volume of air required for each to achieve the same amount of heat reduction. I know specific numbers cant be known, but generaly if one requires more air than another would be the answer I'm looking for. Thanks in advance.

Generally the air-liquid-air system will under perform due to the two additional convective heat transfer interfaces. Think of the air-air system as two air streams with a large plate of aluminium separating them. Now replace the aluminium plate with two plates with a liquid stream in between - thats the air-liqid-air system. You can see there is a "thicker" barrier for the heat to cross.

If the lowest possible final temperature for the intake air is required, air-air has the advantage.

If a higher intake air temperature can be tolerated, the air-liquid-air system can permit smaller heat exchangers and remote location e.g. the Charge Air Cooler can be located where the intake air ducting already is, allowing a more direct and lower volume intake.