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Old 06-24-2011, 07:43 AM   #1 (permalink)
Air-Hybrid
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Phase-change material for down-sizing cooling system

Old article from Autospeed:
http://autospeed.com/A_110772/cms/article.html


The article describes the device as an intercooler although it is really a temporary heat-sink.
The idea is a phase-change material -or PCM- (in this case a petroleum wax) absorbs heat from the charge when on-boost and 'gives it back' to the charge when off-boost.

This only works because when the charge air is turbo'd the temperature (due to compression) raises passed the wax's fusion temperature (ie. when it turns to liquid).

Since many of the solutions today in tackling fuel economy are about evening out the peaks of a cycle (whether it be hybrids, or fly-by-wire lean-burn), then it occurred to me that the same ought to be true for cooling.

I think I read somewhere that the Prius already uses PCMs to store coolant heat for quick-up-to-temp restarting. So I was wondering, if this idea is true for intercoolers on turbo'd road cars (not race as they are on-boost over 50% of the time) then could a similar advantage be gained by employing a small tank of PCM in-line with the coolant circuit?


Last edited by Air-Hybrid; 06-27-2011 at 06:15 AM.. Reason: bump
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