It is known in automotive technology to provide vehicles with heat exchangers such as condensers, evaporators, heater cores and coolers. These heat exchangers ordinarily include alternating rows of tubes or plates with convoluted fins. Such heat exchangers are ordinarily made of a metal material such as aluminum or an aluminum alloy.
It is known in the art of heat exchanges, such as vehicle radiators, to include bi-channel tubes. In the bi-channel tube there is a solid common wall or divider provided to keep separate the coolant flowing in the two channels such that hot coolant travels in one channel and cold coolant travels in the adjacent channel. The divider adds structural integrity to the heat exchanger.
While providing a practical solution to many of the challenges faced in vehicle cooling the coolant flow in bi-channel tubes used in heat exchangers today has potential to bias flow in one channel in the two-channel tube. Biased coolant flow happens when hot or cold coolant enters one of the two-channels first. This biased flow causes temperature differentials in the tube when different temperature coolant enters each of the two-channels at different times. The result is thermal stress within the tube. Over time this thermal stress leads to premature breakdown of the heat exchanger and may lead to uncontrolled breaks of coolant flow from one channel into another, thus compromising the overall effectiveness of the heat exchanger and requiring expensive repair or replacement of the heat exchanger.
As in so many areas of vehicle technology there is always room for improvement related to the construction of heat exchangers in the automobile.
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