A vehicle radiator including inlet and outlet headers, a soldered core having
a
plurality of coolant flat tubes joining the inlet header and the outlet header
with cooling fins on opposite sides of the coolant flat tubes, and a multifunction
flat tube on at least one side of the core. The multifunction flat tube has a greater
section modulus than the coolant flat tubes, and is soldered to adjacent cooling
fins and the inlet and outlet headers whereby the multifunction flat tube carries
coolant from the inlet header to the outlet header. The multifunction flat tubes
each also have an inner flow resistance which is substantially smaller than the
inner flow resistance of individual coolant flat tubes whereby more coolant flows
through each multifunction flat tube than flows through an individual coolant flat
tube per unit time.
