Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Experimental investigation of a comfort heating system

for a passenger vehicle with an air-cooled engine
K. Suleyman Yigit *

Mechanical Engineering Department, Kocaeli University, Veziroglu Campus, 41400 Kocaeli, Turkey

Received 14 December 2004; accepted 10 February 2005

Available online 19 March 2005

Abstract

This study describes a novel approach utilizing waste heat from the exhaust gas for comfort heating of
the passenger compartment of a vehicle with an air-cooled engine. In the devised system, a water stream
heated by the hot exhaust gas was sent to the passenger compartment of a commercial minibus with an
air-cooled engine, and the system was tested under various operating conditions. Variations of the temper-
atures at several locations inside the vehicle were monitored while ambient temperatures were
3, 0, 5 and
10 °C and there were various numbers of passengers on board. It is found that the system shows a reason-
able heating performance while consuming no extra fuel for this purpose, and experimental data is in good
agreement with numerical results based on heat loss calculations. Results show that when the ambient tem-
perature is above 0 °C and the engine speed is above 2500 rpm, the system yielded comfortable compart-
ment temperatures. Compared with alternative methods using extra fuel for comfort heating, the
proposed system decreases vehicle operating costs and environmental pollution caused by the heating sys-
tem as well as causing a lower global warming.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Vehicle heating system; Air-cooled engine; Exhaust gas; Pollution

*
Tel.: +90 262 343 3991; fax: + 90 262 343 3891.
E-mail address: kyigit@kou.edu.tr

1359-4311/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2005.02.004
 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799 2791

Nomenclature

Ai total interior area of the passenger compartment (m2)

Cp specific heat of air (J kg
1 K
1)
Ki overall heat transfer coefficient (W m
2 K
1)
n total number of passengers
Q1 heat transfer through the compartment walls (W)
Q2 cold air blast infiltration heat (W)
Q3 total metabolic heat of passengers (W)
QT total heating load (W)
q0 metabolic heat of one passenger (W)
Ti average indoor temperature (°C)
Ta outdoor air temperature (°C)
V volume flow rate (m3 s
1)

Greek symbol
qa density of the outside air (kg m
3)

1. Introduction

In internal combustion engines, a significant amount of heat is rejected into the atmosphere by
either engine cooling system or exhaust gas. In general, it is desired that temperatures on the en-
gine parts resulting from heat generation in the cylinders should be up to 200–250 °C [1]. If this
limit is violated, problems will arise in mechanical strength of parts, in gaps between the parts, in
degradation of lubrication oil, and even in the cylinder head as crack fractures. On the other hand,
if the engine is operated below a certain temperature range, the thermal efficiency of the engine
will decrease, fuel conception will increase and lubrication problems will also occur [2]. In addi-
tion, particulate formation in exhaust gas increases with decreasing gas temperature [3]. However,
this is an undesired situation for the ecological system balance. Therefore, these troubles should
be eliminated by a suitable cooling system. The suggested working temperature ensuring the
aforementioned features in an air-cooled engine is about 150 °C [4]. When air-cooled engines
are compared to water-cooled engines, it is seen that the former have a simple structure, less-
weight, and are easier to manufacture. Moreover, air-cooled engines do not have freezing, calci-
fication, and water boiling problems. However, disadvantages of air-cooled engines are present
such that cylinder surfaces of air-cooled engines cannot be cooled smoothly, they need a supple-
mentary heating system for winter heating the passenger compartment, and they use a fan for
cooling the engine, which causes undesired noise.
In this study both numerical and experimental work are performed to overcome the disadvan-
tages of air-cooled vehicles about comfort heating. As vehicles with air-cooled engines employ a
fuel-burning heating system, they need more fuel than water-cooled engine vehicles throughout
the winter season. Therefore, not only capital but also operating costs of these vehicles are higher
2792 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799

than those using water-cooled vehicles. In addition, the fuel-burning heating system pollutes the
environment and releases greenhouse gases.
Studies involving the recovery of exhaust gas produced by an air-cooled engine are focused on
the systems with a heat pipe, heat pump, rotary heat exchangers, and J-type heaters. Niekawa
et al. [5] investigated the performance of revolving heat pipes applied to a rotary heat exchanger.
They determined that use of their system is convenient for heat recovery from exhaust gas. Yang
et al. [6] utilized exhaust gas for comfort heating using heat pipe heat exchangers and obtained
good experimental results for exhaust gas temperatures of 100, 200 and 300 °C. Azad and Gibbs
[7] published theoretical performance values of an air-to-water heat pipe heat exchanger. They
showed effectiveness of the heat exchanger for flow-stream capacity for 8, 10 and 12 rows. Blanco
[8] carried out experiments on a four-stroke air-cooled single-cylinder engine and determined out-
put power, exhaust composition and heat loss along with thermal and mechanical efficiencies.
Junhong et al. [9] heated Bitumen, which is used in road maintenance, with the truck exhaust
gas in a waste heat recovery apparatus. Thus, they saved a significant amount of energy and de-
creased environmental pollution. Rakopoulos and Mavropoulos [10] experimentally calculated
the instantaneous heat fluxes in the cylinder head and exhaust manifold of an air-cooled diesel
engine. They clearly identified two separate stages of the exhaust process in the exhaust manifold,
and plotted heat flux variation with engine speed. On the other hand, Ning et al. [3] investigated
the effect of exhaust gas cooling on diesel particulate. Their experiments indicated considerable
increase in particulate mass when the exhaust gas was cooled to 150 °C or below. On the contrary,
when the exhaust gas was cooled above 200 °C, there was a slight increase in the diesel particulate.
This study revealed that exhaust gas temperature must be kept above a certain value for environ-
mental and ecological concerns.
It is seen from the literature survey that there is not a detailed study regarding the use of ex-
haust gas to heat the passenger compartment of vehicles with air-cooled engines. This study pre-
sents a novel system capable of providing comfort heating for air-cooled vehicles without
consuming additional fuel. This system utilizes a specially designed exhaust manifold with water
passages to recover heat from the exhaust gas. A pump circulates water stream between the pas-
senger compartment and the manifold to provide winter heating. The performance of the system
was evaluated by conducting temperature, velocity and mass flow rate measurements. Experimen-
tal results were compared with theoretical ones based on heat generation and heat loss
calculations.

2. Description of the experimental system

The experimental system operating on the principle of recovering the waste heat from the ex-
haust gas for heating a water stream is shown in Fig. 1. Thus, without requiring the original heat-
ing system, the passenger compartment can be comfortably heated. This is accomplished by
sending the hot water stream leaving the heat exchanger in the manifold to a heater core located
inside the passenger compartment to exchange heat with the compartment air. Then, the cooled
water stream leaving the heater core is sent back to the manifold by means of a circulation pump.
The system is equipped with both mechanical and thermostatic three-way valves to direct the hot
 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799 2793

outdoor heat exchanger 3 expansion

WF
T tank
T
T
T
1
electrical fan 2

heater core T air-cooled

T
EF diesel
engine
T
circulation recovery heat
pump exchanger

Fig. 1. Illustration of the experimental setup, and measurement points. (1 and 2) Inlet and outlet of the exhaust gas, (3)
thermostatic and mechanic three-way directional control valves. T: temperature measurement points; WF: water mass
flow rate measurement point; EF: exhaust gas velocity measurement point.

water stream to the outdoor coil when water temperature at the outlet of the manifold is above
80 °C, which is the case usually encountered in mild winter conditions.
When the internal combustion engine starts to operate, it releases exhaust gas whose tempera-
tures are dependent upon engine load, engine speed, cylinder pressure and ambient temperature
[10]. Therefore, the recovered heat from the exhaust gas to water has an upper limit. A specially
designed water shell wrapped around exhaust manifold is used for transferring energy from the
exhaust gas to water. A special aluminium alloy with high thermal conductivity and capable of
enduring exhaust gas temperatures was chosen as the manifold material. The interior sections
of the exhaust manifold were designed based on the principles outlined by Heisler [4] and Winter-
borne–Pearson [11]. Some fins parallel to gas flow direction were added to increase surface area
for enhanced heat transfer.
The three-way thermostatic valve is used for diverting the water stream to either outdoor radi-
ator or heater core depending on the water temperature at the outlet of the manifold. Thus, the
temperature of the waste heat exchanger is kept under control. In winter, owing to the water tem-
peratures below 80 °C, the hot water is usually sent to the heater core. However, as the water tem-
perature exceeds 80 °C, it is automatically sent to the outdoor radiator. Moreover, a mechanical
three-way valve with a manual direction handle bypassing the three-way thermostatic valve is
assembled onto the system to send the hot water stream directly to the radiator or the heater core
when required. If more energy is required by the compartment, an electric fan is manually ener-
gized to increase the heat transfer rate.
In summer, the hot water is directed to the outdoor radiator to reject its heat to the ambient air.
If the water temperature at the inlet of the radiator is higher than a pre-defined set temperature,
an electric fan is energized via a sensor to increase heat rejection rate in the radiator. Thus, the
water circulating in the system never reaches its boiling point.
The circulation pump is excited by the crankshaft. Therefore, the pump speed and mass flow
rate of the water increase with engine speed, thus providing a higher amount of heat to the
compartment. A feeding tank was located at the top of the engine in order to prevent both the
cavitation problems in suction line and expansion of water caused by high water temperatures.
2794 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799

3. Test engine and measurement setup

The experimental study was conducted on an air-cooled, four-cylinder, direct injection diesel
engine of a 14-passenger minibus. Table 1 shows the technical features of the engine used in
the experiments. Various measurements were performed both in the passenger compartment
and on the engine, as shown in Fig. 1. These measurements consist of temperatures at several loca-
tions inside the compartment, water and exhaust gas temperatures at the inlet and exit of the
recovery heat exchanger, water inlet and outlet temperatures at the inlets and outlets of the heater
core and outdoor radiator, mass flow rate of the water and the exit velocity of the exhaust gas.
Water temperatures at all points were measured with T-type thermocouples while exhaust gas
temperatures were measured with K-type thermocouples. For the best results, each thermocouple
was previously calibrated. The extensions of all thermocouple wires were connected to a sub-mul-
tiplexer Keithley Exp-16 unit, and the data measured as analogue information were converted into
their digital counterparts in Keitley Das16-F A/D unit, and recorded in the memory of a portable
computer.
Mass flow rate of the water was measured with a turbine type flow meter. The exhaust gas
velocity measurement was performed with the Pitot tube connected to a special apparatus placed
at the exit of the exhaust manifold. This apparatus scanned the outlet cross section of the exhaust
pipe in equal intervals of 5 mm. The mass flow rate of the exhaust gas was determined using the
results of velocity measurements along with exhaust gas pressure and temperature measurements.

4. Calculation of the heating load

The heating load of a passenger compartment (QT) to maintain average indoor temperature at
(Ti) against an outdoor air temperature of (Ta) consists of three components, namely the heat
transmission through the compartment walls (Q1), the cold air blast infiltration heat (Q2) and
the total metabolic heat of passengers (Q3). The equations involving these parameters were out-
lined in Yang et al. [6] and given below.
QT ¼ Q1 þ Q2
Q3 ð1Þ
X
Q1 ¼ K i Ai ðT i
T a Þ ð2Þ

Q2 ¼ 0:279C p V qa ðT i
T a Þ ð3Þ

Q3 ¼ nq0 ð4Þ

Table 1
Engine data (Deutz F4L912—Diesel engine)
Engine type Four-cylinder, four-stroke, air cooled, DI
Bore/stroke 100 mm/120 mm
Cylinder volume 3770 cc
Maximum power/torque 80 PS (2800 rpm)/22 kg m (1600 rpm)
Compression ratio 17:1
 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799 2795

In the equations, Ki is the overall heat transfer coefficient between vehicle interior and exterior, Ai
is the interior area of the passenger compartment, Cp is the air specific heat, V is the volume flow
rate of the outside air infiltrating the compartment, qa is the density of the outside air, n is the
total number of passengers, q0 is the metabolic heat of one passenger. The coefficient 0.279 takes
into account the flow rate of infiltration air through the doors in terms of the volume of the pas-
senger compartment. In order to find the heating load under the most severe conditions, the total
metabolic heat of passengers is neglected in the calculations. In accordance with ASHRAE stan-
dards, an indoor temperature of 20 °C, and air change 0.1 m3/s were selected [13]. The coldest
ambient temperature for Istanbul is
3 °C. The results of heating load calculations performed
for
3, 0, 5 °C and 10 °C are shown in Table 2.
Assuming that the vehicle load was proportional to the number of the passengers in the com-
partment, the experiments were conducted when the test vehicle was cruising at vehicle loads of
20% (three passengers), 40% (six passengers), 50% (seven passengers) and 80% (11 passengers).
Using the ambient, indoor air, exhaust and water temperatures as well as water mass flow rate
and exhaust gas velocity measurements, the heat provided to the compartment was calculated.
The results in minimum and maximum loading conditions are shown in Table 3.
When Tables 2 and 3 are compared to each other, it is found that at
3 °C ambient tempera-
tures, 2817 W is needed to heat the passenger compartment. This heating load is never provided
by the heating system. At 0 °C ambient temperature, a heating load of 2450 W is needed. During

Table 2
Heating load calculation results
Ambient temperature (°C) Q1 (W) Q2 (W) QT (W)

3 2300 517 2817
0 2000 450 2450
5 1600 330 1930
10 1100 225 1325

Table 3
The heat provided to the passenger compartment by the heater core
Engine speed Inlet temperature of the exhaust gas Exhaust gas flow (m3/s) The heat provided to the
(rpm) (°C) compartment (W)
Vehicle load 20% Vehicle load 80% Vehicle load 20% Vehicle load 80%
750 104 188 0.0278 395 770
1200 142 230 0.0388 474 1050
1500 200 275 0.0491 653 1250
1800 212 335 0.0589 1028 1920
2000 221 410 0.0697 1075 2100
2300 243 505 0.0798 1318 2410
2570 260 530 0.0911 1389 2550
2840 285 570 0.1012 1412 2580
2796 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799

the test runs, the vehicle with 80% load and running at 2570 rpm produced 2550 W. This shows
that the system cannot provide enough heat at
3 °C ambient temperature.

5. Discussion of the experimental results

The designed system assembled on a commercial minibus has been tested for three years in both
winter and summer seasons under downtown driving conditions. Each test was repeated for at
least five times, and measured variables were averaged to find their mean values. The proposed
system usually yielded a good heating performance and did not cause any problem both in winter
and summer operations.
Fig. 2 shows the variation of the exhaust gas temperature with the diesel engine speed at differ-
ent loads. This temperature increases with the engine speed and the vehicle load. This means that
the higher the engine speed and vehicle load, the higher the amount of heat provided to the pas-
senger compartment. For the vehicle loads of 20% and 80%, the maximum exhaust gas tempera-
tures were 230 and 560 °C, respectively. It is seen that this temperature had sufficiently high values
when the engine speed was between 1500 and 2500 rpm. Furthermore, exhaust gas temperatures
at different vehicle loads diverge with the increasing engine speed. Rakopoulos and Mavropoulos
[10] and Qian et al. [12] were also presented results similar to our findings.
For a vehicle load of 80%, the heating load and heat provided to the compartment are shown in
Fig. 3 as a function of engine speed and ambient temperatures. Note that the heating load values
given in Fig. 3 are independent of the engine speed and dependent on only ambient temperature.
When the ambient temperature is above 0 °C or the engine speed is above 2500 rpm, the heating
load is successfully provided by the heating system, thus comfortable compartment temperatures
are attained. It is seen that for the ambient temperature of 10 °C and the engine speeds above
1500 rpm, the heat supplied by the system exceeds the required value.
For a vehicle load of 20%, the indoor, ambient and water outlet temperatures as a function of
time from the engine starting up are shown in Fig. 4. It is seen that all temperatures were equal

600
Vehicle load (20 %)
Exhaust gas temperature (˚c)

500 Vehicle load (40 %)

Vehicle load (50 %)
400 Vehicle load (80 %)

300

200

100

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Engine speed (rpm)

Fig. 2. The variation of exhaust gas temperature with the diesel engine speed at various vehicle loads.
 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799 2797

3000
[80% vehicle load]
(-3˚C)
2500
(0˚C)
2000 ( 5˚C)
Heat (W)
1500
( 10˚C)
1000

500 Heat rejection

Heating load
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Engine speed (rpm)

Fig. 3. The variations of the heating load and the heat rejection in the heater core with the engine speed at different
ambient temperatures.

when the engine was started up after a long off period, typically of 8 h. In severe winter conditions,
the indoor temperatures were in the range of 15–19 °C. Although the indoor temperature was ini-
tially extremely low for
3 °C ambient temperature, it increased with not only time but also
increasing ambient temperature. At 0 °C ambient temperature, indoor temperature reached a suf-
ficiently high value after an operating period of 50 min.
The only drawback of the system is that it cannot provide enough heat to the compartment as
soon as the engine is started up. This case is more severe particularly in the earlier hours of the
day, when ambient temperature is under 0 °C. After a driving distance of 4–5 km or in 5–
20 min, the operation of the system caused a sensible temperature increase in the compartment.
However, the heating systems in water-cooled vehicles using engine coolant also suffer from this
slow heating problem. On the other hand, the original fuel-burning heating system can provide a
faster heating. Therefore, the original system should not be cancelled to obtain supplemental heat
when severe winter conditions are prevailed.

75
65
55 Indoor temperature
Temperature ( ˚C)

45 Ambient temperature
35
Water temperature at the recovery heat
25 exchanger

15
5
-5
-15
0 20 40 60 80
Time (min)

Fig. 4. The variations of indoor, ambient and water outlet temperatures with time.
2798 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799

The original heater of the vehicle produces 1.9 kW heating energy by consuming diesel fuel at a
rate of 0.23 l/min at half load. This energy is provided to the compartment air by means of either a
water or air stream. Based on 120-day-long experimental runs performed in the 2003 winter sea-
son in Istanbul, the original heating system operated four hours a day consumed approximately
110 l of fuel. When the whole fleet of vehicles with air-cooled engines are taken into consideration,
the total amount of fuel consumption for heating purposes is extremely high. The proposed heat-
ing system usually requiring no additional fuel enables considerable fuel savings and significantly
prevents environmental pollution due to reduced exhaust emissions.

6. Uncertainty analysis

Before the experiments were performed, an uncertainty analysis was conducted to evaluate if
the current instrumentation was accurate enough to measure various parameters influencing
the performance of the system reliably. In the present study, there are three major sources of
uncertainties, namely the uncertainty in temperature measurements, the one in the mass flow rate
measurement of water and the one in the velocity measurements of the exhaust gas. For the pres-
ent analysis, most of the contribution to uncertainty comes from the thermocouples. During the
experiments, about 30 successive readings for a measured variable, as performed in accordance
with the information given by Moffat [14], were taken. The uncertainties of the measurements
were calculated as ±1% °C for temperature, ±3% for mass flow rate of water, and ±2% for the
velocity of the exhaust gas. The maximum uncertainties related to Q1, Q2 and QT are estimated
to be 0.88%, 2.00%, 1.84%, respectively.

7. Conclusion

A novel heating system based on recovery of heat from the exhaust gas and used for providing
comfort heating to the passenger compartment of a vehicle with an air-cooled engine is proposed.
As a result of three-year-long comprehensive experiments, it is seen that the proposed system pro-
vides usually enough amount of heat to the compartment without requiring any extra fuel. This
new system costs only one-third of the original fuel-burning heating system. With this system,
110 l of fuel is saved for a 14-passenger air-cooled engine vehicle per year. Due to no exhaust emis-
sions, the system causes neither environmental pollution nor global warming. Therefore, the pro-
posed system can be employed by all vehicles with air-cooled engines. It was observed in the
experimental study that when the ambient temperature was above 0 °C or the engine speed was
over 1500 rpm, the system balanced the heat loss from the compartment very well. The original
heating system can also be used to supplement the proposed system when severe winter conditions
prevailed. On the other hand, it is possible to use a heat pipe system in conjunction with the pres-
ently proposed system to obtain better performance. However, the exhaust outlet temperature
should be kept above a certain value in order not to experience particulate formation, condensing
and emission problems. This also limits the heating capacity of all the systems based on exhaust
heat recovery.
 K. Suleyman Yigit / Applied Thermal Engineering 25 (2005) 2790–2799 2799

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