Abstract
Expressor is a device used in railway locomotives, consisting of two individual units called the compressor and exhauster. Compressor is used to compress the air and the exhauster is used to create vacuum. The function of the intercooler in expressor is to cool the air, which comes out of the low-pressure compressor, and send it to the high-pressure compressor. The main objective of this work is to increase the amount of heat transfer from the hot air when it is passed through the Intercooler. This is accomplished by making modifications in the existing fin of the tubes in intercooler. The best designs for maximum heat transfer is chosen by varying three parameters namely fin material, shape of the fin and thickness of the pipe using Taguchi's Design of Experiments (DoE). Using ANSYS, analysis software, the analysis is carried out and the output response parameters are analyzed using Signal-to-Noise ratio. An validation analysis is performed with the optimum control parameters and the output responses are analyzed, which shows an improved heat transfer. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education