What about running a pressurized gas through an air/liquid intercooler rather than iced water?
This is what I'm thinking. The common practice is to carry along a large water tank, water pump and plumbing.
During the course of a run the water is circulated through the intercooler to cool it. The water picks up heat and is continually recirculated through the run. As the water picks up heat, the water recirculated back to the intercooler will begin to warm in temperature by the finish of the run. The cooling affect of the cooling medium changes throughout the run.
The water in the intercooler must be changed out with each pass and a large supply of ice must be hauled to the track and properly stored, to be added to the intercooler tank for each pass.
That seems like a lot of work to me.
Of course, that extreme of intercooling is not always necessary when you're burning methanol, but at higher boost levels, a certain level of intercooling can still have some value, even with methanol.
Water will also corrode the intercooler core requiring that the core be changed out every so often.
Now we switch to a pressurized container of a cooling gas. CO2, liquid nitrogen, nitrous oxide.
The container is simple and quickly changed out. No pump is required. The cooling medium is not recirculated during the run, so the level of intercooling stays the same all the way to the finish of the run. There's no messy changing of fluids and awkward storing of massive amounts of ice and water. The level of intercooling can be adjusted by metering the gas flow from the pressurized cylinders. The weight of the cylinder changes during the course of the run.
The flow of the cooling medium can serve other purposes on its way to and from the intercooler, if needed. For instance, if you're running an inlet tube to the compressor housing, wrap another tube around it and form a chamber where the cooling gas can cool the inlet tube before going on to the intercooler. Pre and post compressor cooling.
And after the cooling gas passes through the intercooler, dump it into the exhaust pipe after the turbine to cool the exiting gases. Cooler, denser exhaust gases traveling at a slower speed through the exhaust pipe at a lower pressure, promoting exit flow from the turbine.
This is what I'm thinking. The common practice is to carry along a large water tank, water pump and plumbing.
During the course of a run the water is circulated through the intercooler to cool it. The water picks up heat and is continually recirculated through the run. As the water picks up heat, the water recirculated back to the intercooler will begin to warm in temperature by the finish of the run. The cooling affect of the cooling medium changes throughout the run.
The water in the intercooler must be changed out with each pass and a large supply of ice must be hauled to the track and properly stored, to be added to the intercooler tank for each pass.
That seems like a lot of work to me.
Of course, that extreme of intercooling is not always necessary when you're burning methanol, but at higher boost levels, a certain level of intercooling can still have some value, even with methanol.
Water will also corrode the intercooler core requiring that the core be changed out every so often.
Now we switch to a pressurized container of a cooling gas. CO2, liquid nitrogen, nitrous oxide.
The container is simple and quickly changed out. No pump is required. The cooling medium is not recirculated during the run, so the level of intercooling stays the same all the way to the finish of the run. There's no messy changing of fluids and awkward storing of massive amounts of ice and water. The level of intercooling can be adjusted by metering the gas flow from the pressurized cylinders. The weight of the cylinder changes during the course of the run.
The flow of the cooling medium can serve other purposes on its way to and from the intercooler, if needed. For instance, if you're running an inlet tube to the compressor housing, wrap another tube around it and form a chamber where the cooling gas can cool the inlet tube before going on to the intercooler. Pre and post compressor cooling.
And after the cooling gas passes through the intercooler, dump it into the exhaust pipe after the turbine to cool the exiting gases. Cooler, denser exhaust gases traveling at a slower speed through the exhaust pipe at a lower pressure, promoting exit flow from the turbine.