marcush. wrote:.....Are the teams really ahead of current radiator technologies as available at Modine Visteon Behr to name a few-The cost for development of radiator tube and fin layouts and tools may or may not be in reach for a top team ..there might be some potential with nano fluids to improve heat transfer -not really something worthwhile in the real world to pursue but with F1 s power levels and detailcrazyness I´d think someone is already looking at it if not using it already...
and then there is graphite and carbon ...but is there enough budgets for tackling something like this ?
I´m not entirely sure but is phase change cooling an option for Formula 1? I have it on the back of my mind this is prohibited in the rules...but maybe only for engine cooling ?
marcush- Last time I checked, F1 regs only allowed water for engine coolant. I also recall that the max pressure in the coolant system was limited to something like 2 bar.
Regarding the manufacture of custom core designs, this cost is well within the reach of any F1 team budget. As for core designs that are more efficient than the conventional tube/fin, in terms of drag, flow losses, volume or weight, there is at least on new concept. Rather than tubes and fins, the core design uses a large number of closely spaced, very small diameter tubes, having extremely thin walls. The principle behind it is that there is a much more efficient heat transfer from liquid to air across the extremely thin tube wall.
The design of oil heat exchangers is a bit different than coolant heat exchangers. The pressure drop across the core is of great concern with oil coolers. For this reason, it is usually desirable to keep the tube length of oil cooler cores as short as practical.
