This SAE Recommended Practice is applicable to all heat exchangers used in vehicle and industrial cooling systems. This document outlines the tests to determine the heat transfer and pressure drop performance under specified conditions.

Purpose

This document is to provide a test guideline for determining the heat transfer and pressure drop performance of a heat exchanger under specified testing conditions.

Objective

To determine and document the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a heat exchanger. This document describes a system to flow fluids through the heat exchanger at specified rates and temperatures, and describes and recommends the instrumentation and the procedure for documenting the results. The procedure may be varied to match existing equipment and methods.