How Renault used CFD to optimize thermal sub-systems of vehicles in order to reduce CO2 emissions.
How to reduce the carbon footprint of the automotive industry? Mobility comes with huge CO2 emissions and drastically reducing them is a top priority of vehicle designers today. It is no surprise that simulation can play a major part in finding solutions for this important challenge. Simulation can provide insight, reduce time-to-market, improve reliability, and reduce engineering cost for new and optimized vehicle design.
Renault understood this very well. In response to fast-changing market demands and environmental pressures, they push the designs of every component of their engines to maximum efficiency and they use computational fluid dynamics for the optimization of pumps, turbochargers, fans, and more. Everything to obtain maximum performance, with minimum consumption.
“CFD simulation and optimization tools are key players at Renault and the automotive industry in general right now (…) We selected Cadence CFD for their long experience and expertise in the CFD numerical field, and especially in rotating machinery. We chose it because of the high quality of the mesh and their numerical solutions that give very accurate results. We also really appreciate their optimization tools based on parametrized CAD data,” said Alain Lefebvre, fluid systems simulation expert at Renault.
Waterpump system for a 2.0L DCI engine.
To learn more on how Renault specifically uses CFD in their design processes, have a look at this short on-demand webinar. They talk about how they handled a specific study case where they investigated how to optimize the thermal sub-systems of their vehicles in order to reduce their impact on CO2 emissions and comply with WLTC (Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Test Cycle) objectives and how it impacts not only ICE but also xHEV and EV.
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