dc.description.abstract
This thesis presents a comparative analysis of the thermal behavior of an internal combustion engine (ICE) before and after a design change that modifies the air intake to the engine compartment. The main objective is to determine whether the new design alters the temperature distribution of critical engine components, potentially compromising performance and reliability. The methodology consists of full-scale testing of two vehicle variants: baseline (A) and modified (B), subjected to four different operating conditions: maximum speed, mountain ascent with and without load, and mountain ascent with load at high speed. The evaluations were conducted using wind tunnel facilities to simulate the testing requirements in climate conditions, airflow speed, and mountain slope. The test vehicle equipment included precise instrumentation, including thermocouples, piezoresistive pressure sensor, turbine flow meters, and photoelectric angular velocity sensors. The data collected from 84 measurement points were processed using INCA, MDA and Python to monitor on real time, generate time-series graphs and create regression models, respectively. The results show that, although most components remain within acceptable temperature ranges, four sensors presented significant differences in temperature behavior between variants A and B. A detailed analysis conducted for the vent pipe near the turbocharger, including heat transfer calculations and polynomial regression models, suggests that the design change led to its increase in temperature, with values exceeding operational limits, in two of the experiments due to the chimney effect. An environmental and cost assessment revealed that the total emissions for the execution of the test exceeded 4 tons of CO2 and the estimated project cost was approximately C51,493. These studies emphasize the importance of optimizing test procedures and design validations. In conclusion, while the design modification achieves its intended function, it introduces localized thermal alterations that must be considered. Further work should explore the development of a general temperature prediction model to study the impact of alternative airflow geometries, thermal resistant materials, or integrated cooling solutions.
