A Survivable Tactical Truck Radiator - A Conceptual and Feasibility Study

The single most important design factor faced by the cooling systems in tactical trucks is their vulnerability to exploding shells, sniper fire, and other projectiles. This project proposes to use heat pipes in radiators to transfer waste heat from the engine to the surrounding environment. In the phase I concept feasibility study, a computer program was developed to design a small scale heat pipe radiator module. Experimental tests were performed on this module to test the validity of the design methodology and to study the vulnerability characteristics of the heat pipe radiator for a wide range of operating parameters such as air velocity, coolant flow rates, and the number of heat pipes damaged. The results showed that a heat pipe radiator will provide the necessary limp home capability for tactical trucks even with 50% of the heat pipes damaged. Also, when the radiators are operating at less than peak capacity (slower vehicle speeds), the undamaged heat pipes substantially compensated for the damaged heat pipes adding to the reliability of the system.