Thermal characterisation of compact heat exchangers for air heating and cooling in electric vehicles

Abstract

[EN] The use of air conditioning in all-electric cars reduces their driving range by 33% in average. With the purpose of reducing the energy consumption of the vehicle and optimising the performance of the batteries, the mobile air-conditioning can be integrated with the temperature control system of the powertrain by means of a coolant loop. In such layouts, the air-to-coolant heat exchangers must operate efficiently in both air heating and cooling modes. Dynamic simulation tools comprising the entire thermal system are essential to assess its performance. In this context, fast but accurate models of the system components are required.

This paper presents the thermal characterisation of a commercial compact louvered-fin flat-tube heat exchanger (heater core) for this novel application, based on an experimental campaign comprising 279 working points that reflect real air-conditioning (heating and cooling) working conditions. A general methodology to fit a single correlation of the global heat transfer coefficient for both dry and wet working conditions is explained. The semiempirical correlation developed is employed in a single-node model of the heat exchanger that requires minimal computation time. The present model predicts the heat transfer rate with an average deviation of 3.5% in the cases with dehumidification and 1.9% in the cases when the heat exchanger remains dry.