Which of the following engine cooling systems is commonly employed in...
There are two types of cooling systems used for cooling the IC engines.
i. Liquid or indirect cooling system
ii. Air or direct cooling system
Air or direct cooling system: In an air-cooled system, a current of air is made to flow past the outside of the cylinder barrel, the outer surface area of which has been considerably increased by providing cooling fins. This method is mainly applicable to engines in motorcycles, small cars, airplanes, and combat tanks where the vehicle’s motion gives a good velocity to cool the engine. In bigger units, a circulating fan is also used.
The value of the heat transfer coefficient between metal and air is appreciably low. As a result of this, the cylinder wall temperatures of the air-cooled cylinders are considerably higher than those of the water-cooled type.
Liquid or indirect cooling system: In this system, mainly water is used and made to circulate through the jackets provided around the cylinder, cylinder head, valve ports, and seats, where it extracts most of the heat. It is used for heavy vehicles.
Water cooling is carried out by the following five methods:
(a) Direct or non-return system
(b) Thermosyphon system
(c) Forced circulation cooling system
(d) Evaporative cooling system
(e) Pressure cooling system
Evaporative cooling system: This is predominately used in stationary engines and many types of industrial engines. In this system, the engine will be cooled because of the evaporation of the water in the cylinder jackets into steams.
Thermosyphon system: In this system, water circulation is due to differences in the water temperature. So, in this system pump is not required; water is circulated only because of density difference.
Forced circulation cooling system: This system is used in many vehicles like cars, buses, trucks, and other heavy vehicles. Here, the circulation of water takes place with convection currents helped by a pump.