Modeling and Optimizing Automotive Waste Recovery for Optimal Performance

Abstract

Abstract: It is vital to explore an effective way to capture waste heat from modern automobiles. This research outlines the current methods to harness that excess heat from the exhaust system and a proposal to use a high-efficiency printed-circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) to harness the heat. The research also revealed a unique iteration process that encompasses testing of the exchanger in a closed-loop steam system which would serve as the basis for future experiments. In lieu of experiments, data was collected from peer-reviewed research of other scientists to approximate the effectiveness and efficiency of the system. The following facts were theoretically revealed by the derived model. The theorized heat exchanger was found to have a maximum transfer rate of 510 kW while the maximum heat supplied by the exhaust is around 100 kW. The exchanger is sufficiently designed to capture energy wasted by the engine through the tail pipe. With a mass of 5.169 kg for the exchanger alone and the estimated amount of fluid, turbine, generator, and piping to be no more than 50 kg, the vehicle will experience very little mass increase.