Comparison and Validation of CFD Models for Conjugate Heat Transfer in Aluminum Cooling Profiles

Comparison and Validation of CFD Models for Conjugate Heat Transfer in Aluminum Cooling Profiles

Surnin A.D. (ISTU, Izhevsk, Russia)
Chernova A.A. (ISTU, Izhevsk, Russia)

Abstract

This paper presents a combined numerical and experimental study of conjugate heat transfer in monolithic aluminum profiles used in oil coolers. The aim was to compare computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with laboratory experiments to evaluate the accuracy of the numerical models and to analyze how profile geometry affects heat exchange efficiency. Numerical simulations were performed in OpenFOAM v10 and ANSYS CFX 2023 R1 using a steady-state formulation and the SST (Menter) turbulence model. Both the thermal conductivity of the aluminum body and convective heat transfer between the internal coolant flow and external air stream were taken into account. Five profile geometries (64, 32, 50, 45tn, 45tl) were modeled using detailed three-dimensional meshes to obtain the temperature and velocity distributions. Experimental tests were conducted on a full-scale oil cooler at an air velocity of 6 m/s, air temperature of 20 °C, and coolant temperature of 80 °C. The thin-walled profile 45tn showed the highest temperature drop (ΔT ≈ 32 °C), while the thick-walled 45tl demonstrated the lowest (ΔT ≈ 16 °C). The average deviation between CFD predictions and experimental results was ≈ 4 % for OpenFOAM and ≈ 6 % for ANSYS CFX, confirming the validity of the applied physical models and numerical settings. The obtained results provide a validated basis for the geometric optimization of aluminum profiles and for the development of compact, high-efficiency heat exchangers.

Keywords

conjugate heat transfer; CFD modeling; aluminum profiles; oil cooler; OpenFOAM; ANSYS CFX; experimental validation.

Edition

Proceedings of the Institute for System Programming, vol. 38, issue 3, part 4, 2026, pp. 191-206

ISSN 2220-6426 (Online), ISSN 2079-8156 (Print).

DOI: 10.15514/ISPRAS-2026-38(3)-55

For citation

Surnin A.D., Chernova A.A. Comparison and Validation of CFD Models for Conjugate Heat Transfer in Aluminum Cooling Profiles. Proceedings of the Institute for System Programming, vol. 38, issue 3, part 4, 2026, pp. 191-206 DOI: 10.15514/ISPRAS-2026-38(3)-55.

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