Search Results

In winter, the temperature of the coldest month is below -20°C. Low temperature makes it difficult to start a diesel engine, combust sufficiently, which increases fuel consumption and pollutes the environment. The use of an electric power-driven auxiliary heating system increases the battery load and power consumption. Solar thermal energy has the advantages of easy access, clean and pollution-free. The coolant in the cylinder block of the diesel engine has a large contact area within the cylinder and is evenly distributed, which can be used as a heat transfer medium for the warm-up. A one-dimensional heat transfer model of the diesel engine block for the coolant warm-up is developed, and the total heat required for the warm-up is calculated by an iterative method in combination with the warm-up target.

The hydraulic retarder is the most stabilized auxiliary braking system [1-2] of heavy-duty vehicles. When the hydraulic retarder is working during auxiliary braking, all of the braking energy is transferred into the thermal energy of the transmission medium of the working wheel. Theoretically, the residual heat-sinking capability of the engine could be used to cool down the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the hydraulic retarder. Never the less, the hydraulic retarder is always placed at the tailing head of the gearbox, far from the engine, long cooling circuits, which increases the risky leakage risk of the transmission medium. What's more, the development trend of heavy load and high speed vehicle directs the significant increase in the thermal load of the hydraulic retarder, which even higher than the engine power.

The thermal management system is essential for the safe and long-term operation of the power battery. The temperature difference between the individual cells exceeds the acceleration of the battery performance, which leads to battery out of use and affects the performance of the vehicle. Compared with the low heat transfer coefficient of the air-cooling system, the complex structure of the liquid-cooling system and the large quality of phase change material system, the heat pipe has high thermal conductivity, strong isothermal performance and light weight, it’s an efficient cooling element that can be used for thermal management. In this study, the flat plate heat pipe(FPHP) is used to manage the temperature of the battery, through experiments, the optimized placement of the flat heat pipe is obtained.

To prevent braking recession, heavy commercial vehicles are often equipped with fluid auxiliary braking devices, such as hydraulic retarder. Hydraulic retarder can convert the vehicle’s kinetic energy to the fluid heat energy, which can enormously alleviate the main brake’s workload. The traditional hydraulic retarder can provide enough braking torque but has a delay during the braking. In this paper, a new type of magnetorheological fluid (MR fluid) hydraulic retarder is introduced by replacing the traditional fluid with magnetorheological fluid because of its linear braking torque and quick response. By changing the magnetic field intensity, it is easier to control the braking torque than the traditional hydraulic retarder. The rise of magnetorheological fluid temperature during the braking period will reduce the hydraulic retarder’s performance.

Magnetorheological fluid (MRF) is used as the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder. The rheological properties are regulated by changing the magnetic field to achieve accurate control of the retarder's braking torque. Under the action of the external magnetic field, the flow structure and performance of the MRF retarder will be changed in a short time. The apparent viscosity coefficient increases by several orders of magnitude, the fluidity deteriorates and the heat generated by the brake cannot be transferred through the liquid circulation, which will affect the braking torque of the retarder. Changing the surface area of the stator also has an influence on the braking torque of the retarder and the wall heat dissipation. In this study, the relationship between the braking torque of the MRF retarder and the stator surface area of the retarder was analyzed.

In heavy truck driveline system, the components often include clutch, transmission, transfer case, drive shaft, etc. A fluid torque converter could be equipped in front of the transmission in order to improve the starting performance. Meanwhile, a hydraulic retarder could be introduced for auxiliary braking so as to adapt the truck to the brake on long downgrade in mountainous regions. Thus, the driveline heat load would have a notable increase. Both the fluid torque converter and the hydraulic retarder would produce a large quantity of heat, and a special cooling system is needed for adjusting the transmission fluid temperature with which the gains are potentially very large [1]. The heat load for driveline is often calculated based on empirical formula. For the heavy truck, however, if the heat value is underestimated, driveline components would suffer from overheated damage.

While the car ownership increasing all over the world, the unutilized thermal energy in automobile exhaust system is gradually being realized and valued by researchers around the world for better driving energy efficiency. For the unexpected urban traffic, the frequent start and stop processes as well as the acceleration and deceleration lead to the temperature fluctuation of the exhaust gas, which means the unstable hot-end temperature of the thermoelectric module generator (TEG). By arranging the heat conduction oil circulation at the hot end, the hot-end temperature’s fluctuation of the TEG can be effectively reduced, at the expense of larger system size and additional energy supply for the circulation. This research improves the TEG hot-end temperature stability by installing solid heat capacity material(SHCM) to the area between the outer wall of the exhaust pipe and the TEG, which has the merits of simple structure, none energy consumption and light weight.

The closed cabin temperature is anticipated to be cooled down when it is a bit hot inside the driving car. The traditional air-condition lowers the cabin temperature by frequently switching the status of the compressor, which increases the engine’s parasitic power and shortens the compressor’s service-life. The semiconductor auxiliary cooling system with the properties of no moving parts, high control precision and quick response has the potential to assist the on-board air-condition in modulating the cabin temperature with relative small ranges. Little temperature differences between the cabin and the outside environment means that the system energy consumption to ensure the occupant comfort is relatively low and the inefficiency could be made up by the renewable energy source.

Vehicle hydraulic retarders are applied in heavy-duty trucks and buses as an auxiliary braking device. In traditional cooling systems of hydraulic retarders, the working fluid is introduced into the heat exchanger to transfer heat to the cooling liquid in circulation, whose heat is then dissipated by the engine cooling system. This prevents the waste heat of the working fluid from being used effectively. In hydraulic retarder cooling system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle, the organic working fluid first transfers heat with the hydraulic retarder working fluid in Rankine cycle, and then outputs power through expansion machine. It can both reduce heat load of the engine cooling system, and enhance thermal stability of the hydraulic retarder while recovering and utilizing braking energy. First of all, according to the target vehicle model, hydraulic retarder cooling system model based on Rankine cycle is established.

The hydraulic retarder is an auxiliary braking device used for commercial vehicle in a long slope brake, and its transmission oil generates a lot of heat in its working process. If the heat of transmission doesn’t go through a reasonable management, it will seriously affect the braking performance of hydraulic retarder. To cool down the transmission oil, it will aggravates the load of the engine cooling system, and the long cooling path sometimes causes heat exchange not timely. When the Rankine cycle is used for cooling the hydraulic retarder transmission oil in virtue of its good heat transfer performance in phase change process, it can make the transmission oil temperature controlled more stable. In this new system, the setting parameters of the Evaporate-condensate system will affect the stability of the transmission oil temperature in the hydraulic retarder inlet and the energy recovery efficiency of the system.

In this research, the Mg2Si1-xSnx thermoelectric material is used in the exhaust temperature difference power-generating system, and the material's heat transfer characteristic and power-generating characteristic were analyzed. Firstly, steady heat transfer model from vehicle exhaust to cooling water was established. Then the impact of Sn/Si ratio to the thermoelectric characteristic parameter was analyzed. Finally, considering the influence of varying thermal conductivity to the heat transfer process along the material's heat transfer direction, when the cold end temperature of thermoelectric materials was controlled by cooling water respectively boiling at 343K and 373K, the thermoelectric conversion efficiency and power output of Mg2Si1-xSnx thermoelectric materials with different x value were evaluated based on simulation calculation.

The hydraulic retarder is an auxiliary braking device generally equipped on commercial vehicles. Its oil temperature change influences the brake performance of hydraulic retarder. The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a good means to recover exhausted heat. Moreover, it can cool oil and stably control oil temperature with the help of heat absorption related with evaporation. Comprehensively considering the heat-producing characteristics of hydraulic retarder and the temperature control demand, the aimed boundary conditions are determined. Also the changing rules about the working medium flow rate are obtained. In this work, the heat-producing properties of hydraulic retarder under different conditions and the oil external circulating performance is firstly analyzed. By researching the system’s adaptation to the limiting conditions, the aimed temperature to control is prescribed.

It’s not easy to start the engine in winter, especially in frigid highlands, because the low temperature increases the fuel’s viscosity, decreasing the lubricating oil flow ability and the storage performance of battery. Current electrical heating method can improve the engine starting performance in low temperature condition, but this method adds an external power to the engine, leading to the engine cannot maintain an efficient energy utilization. A warming device using the solar energy is designed to conserve the energy during the daytime, and directly warm up the engine at the time when the engine turns off for a long time, especially during the night. A solar collector installed on the top of the vehicle is used to convert the solar energy to the thermal energy, which is then transferred to the heat accumulator that contain the phase-change medium which can increase the heat storage performance.

Fluid auxiliary braking devices can provide braking torque through hydraulic damping, fluid auxiliary braking devices can also convert vehicular inertia energy into transmission fluid heat energy during the braking, which can effectively alleviate the work pressure of the main brake. Traditional hydraulic auxiliary braking devices use transmission fluids to transmit torque, however, there is a certain lag effect during the braking. The magnetorheological fluid (MR fluid) can also be used to transmit torque because it has the advantages of controlling braking torque linearly and responding fast to the magnetic field changed. The temperature of MR fluid will increase when the vehicle is engaged in continuous braking. MR fluid temperature changes will cause a bad influence on the efficiency stability of auxiliary braking.

In order to ensure driving safety, heavy vehicles are often equipped with hydraulic retarder, which provides sustained, stable braking torque and converts the vehicle kinetic energy into heat taken away by the cooling system when traveling on a long downhill. The conventional hydraulic retarder braking torque is modulated by adjusting the liquid filling rate, which leads to slow response and difficult control. In this paper, a new kind of magnetorheological (MR) fluid hydraulic retarder is designed by replacing the traditional transmission oil with MR fluid and arranging the excitation coils outside the working chamber. The braking torque can be controlled by the fluid viscosity of MR fluid with the variation of magnetic field. Compared with the traditional hydraulic retarder, the system has the advantages of fast response, easy control and high adjustment sensitivity.

In these years, the advantages of using phase change material (PCM) in the thermal management of electric power battery has been wide spread. Because of the thermal conductivity of most phase change material (eg.wax) is low, many researchers choose to add high conductivity materials (such as black lead). However, the solid-liquid change material has large mass, poor flow-ability and corrosively. Therefore, it still stays on experiential stage. In this paper, the Thermal characteristics of power battery firstly be invested and the requirements of thermal management system also be discussed. Then a new PCM thermal management has been designed which uses pure water as liquid phase change material, adopts PCM with a reflux device for thermal management.

The development of the vehicle quantity and the transportation system accompanies the rise of traffic accidents. Statistics shows that nearly 35-45% traffic accidents are due to drivers’ fatigue. If the driver’s fatigue status could be judged in advance and reminded accurately, the driving safety could be further improved. In this research, the blink frequency and eyes movement information are monitored and the statistical method was used to assess the status of the driving fatigue. The main tasks include locating the edge of the human eyes, obtaining the distance between the upper and lower eyelids for calculating the frequency of the driver's blink. The velocity and position of eyes movement are calculated by detecting the pupils’ movement. The normal eyes movement model is established and the corresponding database is updated constantly by monitoring the driver blink frequency and eyes movement during a certain period of time.

In order to obtain the comprehensive evaluation of thermal management system for the retarder, the complete driveline thermal management model is built. The characteristic parameters for the thermal management system are determined and the hydromechanical characteristics for the retarder are fixed by the rig test. On the basis of the same whole vehicle driving cycle, comparing to the traditional mechanical-drive system, the independent-drive system makes the working temperature of the heat source more stable. Meanwhile the parasitic power caused by the radiator fan is decreased markedly on the condition that the heat reject requirement of the heat source is satisfied.

In new energy vehicles, the electric motor, as the main power source, is developing toward high power density. However, its heat generation problem always affects the overall performance of the motor, so an efficient motor cooling system is especially important. In desert or water-scarce areas, liquid cooling cannot meet the needs of new energy vehicle motor cooling. When glycol or other liquid coolants are low or depleted, motor heat dissipation becomes less effective. Heat pipe is a heat dissipation technology with advantages such as fast thermal response and light weight. In this paper, by improving the heat pipe arrangement and reducing the overall mass of the heat dissipation system, a heat pipe optimization design based on a drive motor heat dissipation scheme is proposed, and the overall stability of the motor working under high temperature conditions is improved.

Li-ion power battery is the core component of the electric vehicle power system, and the battery temperature will increase because of the electrochemical reaction of the Li-ion battery. The heat accumulates inside of the battery, which can degrade the working performance of the power battery and shorten the battery cycle life. At present, the wind cooling technology is relatively mature. However, it cannot achieve ideal heat dissipation effect under the working conditions of the high-power or high ambient temperature. In this research, the battery thermal management is carried out by the characteristics of the working fluid’s flowing phase change heat transfer. The phase change working fluid is R-1233zd(E) which is a kind of environmentally friendly liquid with nonconductive and nonflammable. It can achieve the purpose of controlling the battery’s temperature using the characteristics of isothermal heat absorption under different gas phase rate of phase change working fluid.