Research of Operating Processes in Oil Cooler with Spear-Shaped Fins

The present study investigates the operational characteristics of convective oil coolers of a new design, with a particular focus on the numerical investigation of the coupled heat transfer process in the new oil cooler design. The underlying construction of the proposed heat exchanger involves asymmetrical, double-skewed fins, which require careful consideration of the fin orientation relative to the incoming airflow during external convection. The numerical solution was formulated in a quasi-steady-state setting, based on the conservation equations for incompressible medium (gas and liquid), and solved using the finite volume method in the open-source software OpenFoam. The results demonstrate that to enhance the thermal efficiency of the device, it is advisable to use chess multi-pitch oil coolers with spear-shaped fins oriented against the airflow.