Intercooler positioning in a lenght of pipe.

[Fastrotor]

Hi All,
Got abit of a question im trying to solve mathematically. i posted here since its auto in nature, but its also thermodynamics i guess..

OK, heres the scenario.

You have a turbocharger pumping into piping , then into the cooler then on to the plenum.

Where is a better position for the cooler, closer to the turbo or plenum ? Assuming pipe length and size had to stay same. ie Long hot side, short cold OR vice versa.

For example

TURBO------#INTERCOOLER#-----------------------------PLENUM

OR

TURBO------------------------------#INTERCOOLER#-----PLENUM


Which configuration would effect the least OVERALL pressure drop ??


Gary

ps Before anyone says your constrained by physical location on vehicle anyway, my piping both come from the P/S, there for you have the option of short or long pipe run.... so i want to know if hot compressed gas drops more pressure than the cooler but similar pressure gas

 

[MikeHalloran]

The hot gas will suffer more of a pressure drop than the cold gas for identical pipes carrying the same mass flow, but the drop in the intercooler itself should be larger than either.

You can reduce the losses in the pipes by increasing their diameter a size. Reducing losses in the intercooler may not so easy.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Fastrotor]

Thanks Mike,
This is what i had figured, but i was not sure and thought i had better ask an expert!

My car has hot side on the long path, hence why i started looking into all this, and wanted to confirm before i started cutting up the stainless piping !

Thanks again

Gary

 

[ivymike]

you can probably do more harm by introducing an unneeded bend than you can help by shortening the hot side.

 

[NormPeterson]

If this is for a rear-mounted turbocharger kit (which the interest in length suggests might be the case), the cooler location might be dictated by things like not allowing it to be struck by or become clogged with road debris.


Norm

 

[Fastrotor]

Oh no doubt, but i had always just wondered what was the best way to plumb it in these situations where you have a choice.


No Norm, this is just a std front mount. See the car comes std with a small cooler mounter in front of the Passenger side wheel (drivers side for US guys), and since i wish to keep the engine bay looking std and using original holes, i simply extended the piping to both ends of the front mount. This is where you can get one side about a meter longer than the other.

The next step now will be to weld on some bungs to measure the pressure drop on each pipe to determine if its all worth worrying about.

Gary

 

[Bribyk]

Make sure you've got a section of pipe after the compressor for pressure recovery before dumping the air into the aftercooler.

 

[JSteve2]

My guess would be to introduce the biggest restriction (ie the intercooler) at the point of the coolest air possible, so put the cooler closer to the plenum and get some free heat transfer first. It could be possible to induce condensation in the intercooler on a cold day that way, I suppose.

 

[rmw]

The heat transfer in that length would be negligible. The right answer was given above regarding the pressure drop on the hot gas side of the I/C. Minimize that length.

rmw

 

[turbomotor]

Turbo compressor exit air flow typically has a lot of swirl. If you put the aftercooler face too close to the compressor exit, you will suffer losses due to the high angle of attack (due to swirl flow) at the leading edge of the fins. (Assuming typical compact heat exchanger design.)

 

[Fastrotor]

Thanks for all the comments guys, appreciated. There is about a meter between the turbo and cooler currently (once i re-plumb hot side to closest end tank).

gary