Can corrugated radiator tubes significantly improve heat exchange efficiency in automotive components?
Publish Time: 2025-11-04
With the continuous evolution of automotive powertrain and thermal management technologies, efficient heat dissipation has become crucial for ensuring the stable operation of engines, transmissions, batteries, and electronic control systems. As a core heat transfer element in heat exchangers, the structural design of the radiator tube directly affects the overall heat exchange performance. In recent years, corrugated radiator tubes have been widely used in automotive cooling systems due to their unique geometry.
1. Corrugated Structure: Breaking the Boundary Layer and Enhancing Convective Heat Transfer
In traditional smooth straight pipes, a relatively static "thermal boundary layer" forms near the pipe wall during fluid flow, hindering heat transfer from the pipe wall to the fluid core. Corrugated radiator tubes, by creating a continuous undulating corrugated structure on their inner and outer surfaces, effectively disturb the fluid flow. When coolant or air flows through the crests and troughs, the flow velocity direction constantly changes, generating local eddies and secondary flows, thereby breaking the thermal boundary layer and enhancing the convective heat transfer coefficient between the fluid and the pipe wall. Experiments show that, under the same flow rate and temperature difference conditions, the heat transfer efficiency of corrugated pipes can be 20% to 50% higher than that of smooth pipes, especially under low flow rate conditions.
2. Increased Heat Transfer Area: Trading Space for Efficiency
The corrugated structure significantly increases the actual heat transfer surface area per unit length without significantly increasing the outer diameter of the pipe. For example, a typical corrugated pipe with a wave height of 1mm and a wave pitch of 4mm can have an outer surface area 15%–30% larger than a smooth pipe of the same diameter. This means that within the limited space of a radiator, corrugated pipes can provide more heat exchange interfaces, allowing heat to be transferred more quickly from the high-temperature medium to the low-temperature medium, thereby improving the overall heat exchange capacity. This characteristic is particularly important for space-constrained battery cooling plates in new energy vehicles or compact intercoolers.
3. Promotes Turbulence: Reduces Thermal Resistance and Improves Response Speed
Corrugated pipes can also promote the fluid to enter a turbulent state earlier. Compared to laminar flow, turbulent flow has a stronger mixing effect, rapidly drawing high-temperature fluid near the pipe wall towards the central region while pushing low-temperature fluid towards the pipe wall, forming a highly efficient thermal cycle. This not only reduces heat conduction resistance but also accelerates the system's response to temperature changes. Under frequent start-stop or high-load conditions, such as in hybrid vehicles in congested urban traffic, corrugated radiator tubes help the thermal management system reach steady state faster, preventing localized overheating.
4. Balancing Strength and Lightweight Design: Meeting Stringent Automotive Requirements
In addition to thermal performance, automotive components must also meet multiple requirements, including vibration, pressure, and corrosion resistance. The corrugated structure itself has a certain degree of axial flexibility, absorbing stress caused by thermal expansion and contraction or mechanical vibration, reducing the risk of weld cracking. Simultaneously, corrugated radiator tubes are mostly made of thin-walled aluminum alloy or stainless steel materials, manufactured through precision forming processes, achieving lightweight design while ensuring sufficient pressure resistance, aligning with the automotive industry's energy conservation and emission reduction trends.
Corrugated radiator tubes in automotive components can indeed significantly improve heat exchange efficiency through multiple mechanisms, including enhanced convection, increased surface area, and promotion of turbulence. They are not only a performance upgrade solution for traditional thermal management systems but also a key support for the thermal control systems of new energy vehicles.
