Three Dimensional Simulation of the Heat Dissipation of an Automotive Radiator Based on Porous Media Method

12 kinds of automotive radiator cell models were simulated at different air inlet velocities using CFD software Fluent. The distributed drag coefficients of each cell model were obtained by least squares method. Then the whole radiator model whose fins region was replaced by the porous media was simulated. The numerical results were validated by experiments which indicate that the porous media method is reliable. The study shows that the radiator heat dissipation is significantly influenced by fin structure and the model with a fin space of 1.4mm and a louver angle of 23o has the best cooling effect.