Engineering Services

Tube & Fin Heat Exchangers

• Radiators (low & high temperature) — aluminium and plastic tanks, full face, and bed-type designs, smooth and dimpled tubes.
• Air-Cooled Condensers (with or without integrated R/D) and Outside Heat Exchangers (OHX), covering multi-port extruded and folded tubes and tubes with inner fins
• R744 and R1234yf/R134a evaporators with benchmark louvered fin designs that improve condensate drainage in wet conditions.
• R744 Gas coolers cross flow and cross-counter flow.
• Air-cooled Charge Air Coolers (CAC) — full face, bed type, mosaic, and wheel arch solutions.
• Air-cooled oil coolers designed for front-end and wheel arch locations.

Plate Type Heat Exchangers

• Liquid-Cooled Condensers (LCCOND) — from previous experience, we contributed to launching the first automotive mass-production application developed for BMW (SOP 2015).
• Chillers.
• Coolant-to-Coolant HEX.
• Oil coolers.
• Note: multi-pass HEX, plates with chevron, zigzag, and finned (offset-strip fins, easy- and hard-way).

Special Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers

• Liquid-Cooled CAC (LCCAC) — stand-alone design, high-performance offset-strip fins on both sides: air and coolant.
• R744 Liquid-Cooled Gas Coolers — ultra-compact and high performance, can be designed for an effectiveness >98% at 400 kg/h refrigerant flow. Offset-strip fins on the coolant side and multi-port extruded tubes on the refrigerant side.

Our Strengths

• Full know-how in louvered fin designs, achieving high thermal-hydraulic performance for any HEX type. For evaporators and cooler cores, we offer a special louvered fin design that improves condensate drainage and wet-condition thermal performance.
• Dimple pattern thermal-hydraulic optimisation for LT radiators (laminar regime) and HT radiators (transitional regime) tubes.
• Offset-strip fin thermal-hydraulic optimisation for any HEX applications.
• Industry-leading durability under corrosion, pressure, and thermal cycling, cleanliness, stone impact, and vibration.
• Full knowledge of the development of the HEX manufacturing process for mass production.

Case Examples

• Support in the development of the front-end cooling module for the Volvo GPA platform.
• BMW LCCOND: First liquid-cooled condenser for the automotive market.
• VW Group: Developed a method for front-end HEX performance specification, now adopted company-wide.
• GM LCCAC: Patented 3-cylinder-specific design (EP3372940) and integrated intake-manifold concept (EP2872848) with market-leading performance/pressure-drop trade-off.

Highlights

• VW ID3/ID4 R744 heat pump benchmarking — product design, architecture analysis, and efficiency studies.
• Development of next-generation R744 heat pump architectures with ejector integration, reducing compressor size and enabling fast charging.
• Prototyping of R744 HEX: liquid-cooled gas coolers, evaporator, inner gas cooler, and OHX with industry-leading effectiveness.
• R744 heat-pump architectures that reduce valve count to keep high A/C efficiency while lowering compressor displacement — cutting system cost and enabling fast charging.

Capabilities

• Module layout definition and packaging studies.
• Thermal performance prediction for multi-HEX assemblies.
• Airflow management with shroud, fan, and ducting integration, including RAM air and vehicle resistance effects.

Tools & Methods

• In-house FCM simulation tool for airflow determination, pressure rise, fan rescaling, and performance simulation.
• Coupled FCM and HEX performance modelling for accurate module sizing.
• Design optimisation for low noise (NVH).

Results Delivered

• Efficient modules for ICE, hybrid, and EV platforms, including fast-charging, and R744 heat pump applications.
• Reduced fan power consumption through optimised module airflow design.

Architectures & Component Sizing

• Definition of system requirements, operating modes and thermal architectures.
• Comparison of heat pump configurations, including hot gas loops, vapour injection and ejector integration.
• Integration of refrigerant circuits and low- and high-temperature coolant loops.
• Sizing of heat exchangers, compressors, pumps, fans and valves against system requirements.

Simulation & Control Strategies

• Integrated 0D/1D system modelling with GT-SUITE.
• Steady-state performance assessment and transient simulation over driving and charging scenarios.
• Development and assessment of control strategies for compressors, pumps, fans and valves, including heating and cooling priorities.
• Simplified and 3D cabin thermal modelling to assess thermal loads and passenger comfort, with the level of detail adapted to the project.

Results Delivered

• Architecture comparisons and recommendations for component sizing and control strategies.
• Heating and cooling capacity, coefficient of performance (COP), energy consumption and assessment of the impact on vehicle range.
• Temperature and pressure profiles, component operating limits and system response during transients.
• Sensitivity analyses covering ambient conditions, thermal loads and operating scenarios.

Fin Designs

Our designs are validated by 3D CFD modelling and in-house HEXsim simulations, balancing performance with manufacturability.

• Louvered fins — benchmark market design for dry and wet condition performance.
• Offset strip fins — optimal thermal-hydraulic performance for both flow directions: easy- and hard-way.

Tube Designs

• Our designs are validated by 3D CFD modelling and in-house HEXsim simulations, balancing performance, pressure drop, and manufacturability.
• Flat tubes (folded, extruded) and extruded multiport tubes (MPE). Designed and optimised with the HEXsim tool.
• Dimpled tubes — custom-developed for EV and ICE radiators for hill-climb and Vmax conditions, enhancing thermal transfer without exceeding allowed pressure drop. Designed and optimised by 3D CFD analysis.
• Tube with inner fins. Designed with HEXsim and with support of 3D CFD analysis if needed.

Engineering Approach

• 3D CFD studies to optimise heat transfer coefficient vs. pressure drop.
• Geometry optimisation for specific flow regimes (laminar/turbulent).
• Design for manufacturability considering extrusion, forming, and brazing constraints.

Achievements

• Benchmark louvered fin geometry for various types of HEX and recognised for superior wet-condition performance.
• Enhanced tube designs for radiators for EV (laminar regime) and ICE conditions (transition regime).
• Tube with inner fins optimised for condensers and OHX.
• MPE tubes optimised for flow boiling, condensation, and oils.

Applications

• Fin and tube optimisation.
• Pressure drop estimation for flows through complex geometries.
• Air outlet temperature distribution (spread) for heater cores and inner gas coolers by considering inner flow maldistribution.
• Airflow distribution in cooling modules.

Outputs

• Heat transfer coefficient and friction factor correlations in terms of Nu (or j) and f.
• Pressure loss profiles.
• Temperature distribution visualisation.

Case Work

• 3D CFD analysis of fin temperature distribution, correlating test and simulation with high accuracy.
• Tube and fin optimisation projects for multiple HEX types.

Capabilities

• Structural load assessment.
• Fatigue and vibration analysis.
• Thermal and pressure cycling stress evaluation.
• Stone impact resistance simulation.

Partnership

• Collaboration with Luxembourg University for advanced mechanical studies.

Example

• FEA study of fan assembly mechanical constraints leading to improved fatigue life.

Services

• Thermodynamic system design, sizing, and simulation.
• Techno-economic studies providing all technical and economic KPIs.
• Integration of heat pump, ORC, Brayton cycles, Stirling engine, and Carnot batteries.

Benefits

• Powerful multi-objective optimisation: CAPEX and OPEX reduction, minimisation of payback period.
• Lower CO₂ footprint.
• Enhanced energy independence.

Capabilities

• R744 (CO₂) and R290 system design.
• Ejector integration for throttling loss recovery.
• Components sizing.

Project Highlights

• R744 evaporator design with 38mm core exceeding VDA cooling capacity targets.
• Multi-refrigerant capability with deep knowledge of refrigerant thermophysical properties.