"Thaw the chicken first."

-Punch line from old aerospace joke.

MintJulep,

Have you ever seen what happens to a thawed chicken when it's fired into a fighter canopy at 300+ MPH?  It takes quite a while to clean up the mess.

Down in South America they have some big birds.  Buzzards.  One was hit by the leading edge of a C-130 wing-ended up about 1/3 of the way thru-front-to-back, right thru some stainless anti-icing lines, etc.

Finman, before anything gets to a radiator on today's cars it has to get thru something much more important-the A/C condenser!

Metalguy,

Nope, closest I have personally seen is a pigeon hitting the leading edge of a Schweitzer 2-33 doing about 40 knots.  Makes a surprizingly large dent.

No mention in the 2000 SAE Handbook impact tests re crashworthiness of radiators, just a small  note under recording test damage:
SAE J972 Moving Rigid Barrier Tests,
“6.3 Vehicle Deformation – measurements shall be made before and after the test to determine the residual deformation…
     6.3.2 Document crush at two or more structural levels (i.e., sill, bumper, hood…
6.4 Miscellaneous – After the test, remove any soft facia covers or panels to document and describe vehicle structural deformation…Document or photograph engine movement, engine mount fracture, fan marks on radiator…”

SAE J850 Fixed Rigid Barrier Collision Tests.  No mention.

The only standard directly related to mechanical durability in the Handbook seems to be SAE J1598 Laboratory Testing of Vehicle and Industrial Heat Exchangers for Durability under Vibration-Induced Loading.

However, these publications (issued separately from the Handbook) are likely to have mechanical requirements for radiators:
SAE HS 40 JAN91 Principles of Engine Cooling Systems, Components and maintenance.
SAE HS 4040 FEB96 SAE Vehicle Cooling Systems Standards Manual.

Thanks for the help kenvlach. I think we can call it a day on this thread before we go any further on the bird strike angle.

Still I can remember a compressed air cannon, a frozen Orange and the mess it made to a piece of 3/4" plywood......

FWIW I've never heard of one, and I usually try to witness /any/ amusing tests round here.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Hi 'finman',

>>Quote: Is anyone aware of a formal impact test for automotive radiators.

>>I know that the frontal area of a radiator can become damged due to careless pressure washing and in some instance impact damage from airborne stones etc as the materials are all relatively soft. I'm currently working on a unit built from "Hard" materials and I'd like to compare strength against currently available units.

DA: The Japanese do have a water spray test, where they direct a controlled jet of water, at some defined angle, onto the face of forklift & heavy-duty radiators for exactly this purpose... You may want to check the Japanese standards - I seem to remember it was Toyota forklift co in Japan...

Another alternative, depending on your application, is to have 'folded-leading edge' corrugated fins. Caterpillar used this design many years ago to provide additional erosion & impact strength to their tractor/heavy-duty radiators.

The aluminium fins become totally anealed after brazing & so become easily deformed by water-spray, or stones... Copper fins (anneal-resistant material) tend to not anneal, but, of course they are much thinner than their Aluminium counterparts. The copper splitter-fin concept provides a very rigid triangular construction, which actually withstands abuse a lot better...

  

Best regards,

Des Aubery...
(adTherm Technology - www.adtherm.com - info@adtherm.com)