Innovative Simulation and Analysis Tool for Vehicle Thermal Management

The purpose of this investigation is the design and development of a prototype modeling and simulation tool for rapid thermal analysis in support of evaluation and optimization of propulsion cooling systems in conventional and hybrid military ground vehicles. Propulsion system thermal management has become critical due to increases in field related thermal issues related to environmental conditions and increased vehicle loads. The increases in computer performance in recent years have removed many of the pitfalls associated with this type of analysis tool allowing for a high degree of accuracy without an increase in computation time. Our proposed solution will provide a complete thermal management environment that offers a variety of approaches each ideal for modeling a type of cooling component/scenario. This will include the ability to link and couple various model types from simple “network” based models to more complex models involving a mixture of “networks” and full CFD/Computational Heat Transfer based component modeling. TES has a wide range of experience in the development of thermal analysis software. Through collaboration with TACOM, under another SBIR, TES has developed an efficient analysis package which will be modified and customized during Phase I to meet the goals of this investigation.