Re: Cold Air Induction

[Robert Malinka <rmalinka@fairchild.lmco.com>]

Aaah!   I couldn't have said it better myself.  I agree with you Byran,
there has to be a trade-off.
The next thing we know somebody is going to suggest using TE coolers for the
airbox!  I think we 
need something that does not consume energy from the engine but functions as
the result of 
the car moving forward through the air.   I guess what I'm saying or
thinking about is something
similiar to an intercooler thats used on a turbo-diesel.   It would function
as a kind of radiator in reverse
bringing the air down in temp while the car moves forward.   The problem is
how big it has to be and where 
in the world can you put it??   I'm beginning to think the best solution is
a combination of things utilizing reflective
surfaces to deflect heat around the airbox, a smaller version of a radiative
type device and some means of forcing air through 
without running it off the engine.

Bob

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At 11:07 PM 10/1/97 -0700, you wrote:
>There's nothing to be lost in playing around if you enjoy it.  You might
>just find something while you're at it.
>
>I have a couple problems with the idea however.  First, to lower the
>temperature of air, the air needs to disipate energy.  This means that
>something needs to absorb that energy.  In this case, it would be your
>chips.  I would imagine though that those chips have a limited capicity for
>absorbing and storing energy.  In a cooler, you have an insulated, closed
>environment.  This would mean that there is a limit to how much energy is
>added to the system and the chips can be designed around a theoretical
>maximum temperature at time=0 and have capacity for slow leaks into the
>environment.  In your airbox, you have an open system.  This means there is
>a constant supply of more energy entering your environment.  I would think
>that the chips would soon reach their capacity and you'd lose your affect.
>Unless, of course, these chips have a means to disipate energy out of the
>system at the same rate energy enters the system.  Other problems I can
>think of are the flow rate of the air and the surface contact between the
>air and chips.  It seems to me that the air would flow too quickly to allow
>the chips to absorb energy from the air flow in the center of the air box,
>away from the chips.  You also have fluid dynamic problems to deal with.
>How are the chips going to effect the turbulance in the air box?  Any eddies
>created?  How is cooling certain regions of the air box and not others going
>to effect the flow?  The warmer air is going to gravitate towards the cooler
>regions.  Is the air going to start swirling in the air box rather than flow
>directly through the manifold?  These are just a few questions for you to
>ponder.    Of course, I did sleep through most of my Fluids and Thermo
>classes.
>
>Bryan
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