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Electric vehicles (EV) have become very significant and potential way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a worldwide scale. EV also provides Energy security, as it reduces the dependency on petroleum producing countries of the world. Similar to the conventional Internal Combustion Engine Cars, in Electrical Vehicles also the efficient air conditioning system is very important for providing thermal comfort and for giving safe driving conditions. In Air Conditioning systems for EV, the heating option is available in the form of Electrical heaters and Heat Pump systems. The Heat pumps have become more popular compared to the electrical Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) heaters because of their highly efficient and energy saving designs. However, there are still some issues with using heat pumps. One of such issue is their less Coefficient of performance (COP) at low ambient conditions.

The automotive industry is a gigantic industry as millions of vehicles are running on the road and it’s growing at a rapid rate. The emissions are causing various global problems such as global warming, green house effects, air pollutions etc. due to the use of fossil fuels in abundance. This drives to think for alternative solutions, which are eco-friendly and having less or no emissions. The electric vehicles (EVs) are the most reliable solution as it is having high performance and efficiency with zero emissions. The evolution of EVs has fuelled the two-wheeler EVs industry to flourish at a fast pace. Li-ion battery and traction motor are the most important components in two-wheeler EVs and the thermal management for battery is more important for higher efficiency with longer life and better reliability along with the traction motor to have long range and better durability.

In electric vehicles, along with cooling and heating requirement of battery, cabin atmosphere also need to be controlled according to human comfort level. Productivity level of humans decreases when cabin’s environment (including temperature, relative humidity and air velocity) varies too far from comfort range. For cold ambient conditions, waste heat from internal combustion engine is enough for heating passenger cabin in conventional vehicles. In contrast to that, electric vehicles do not have enough waste heat available to warm up cabin atmosphere during winters. Using battery power for heating in winters reduces vehicle mileage drastically. Consequently, many alternative cabin heating technologies and their combinations are proposed and designed to reduce the dependency on battery energy to improve thermal comfort under cold weather conditions.

The rapid evolution of electric vehicles (EVs) has considerably forced the automotive industry to design compact and highly efficient heat exchangers due to low-temperature applications. The plate type heat exchanger (Also known as “Chiller” in automotive industry) is one of the most important components in EVs thermal management systems. It is a type of heat exchanger, which uses metallic plates arranged like a staggered sandwiched structure and brazed together to exchange heat between two working fluids. The heat transfer between the plates occurs due to highly compact structural design as compare to any conventional heat exchangers. The chiller is having very large surface area, which is exposed to the working fluids as the distribution happens all across the plates. The chillers are more suitable design for transferring heat between ranges of working fluids pressure varying from low to high. Various types of welded, semi-welded plate heat exchangers are available in the market.

Radiators are types of heat exchangers, which are used to transfer the heat from one fluid to another fluid. It is mainly used in automobile engine cooling systems and the radiators are the major source of heat rejection from the system by cooling the working fluid (generally water or glycol mixture). The application of radiators in the two-wheeler vehicle segment plays a vital role in increasing engine efficiency by maintaining the optimum temperature inside the engine assembly. As the technology advances with higher power requirements for the two-wheeler vehicle segment, thermal management of combustion engine becomes a critical part of it, resulting in the advancement of radiator technology in terms of compactness and thermal performance. In order to cater to the increasing demand for high-powered engines, performance optimization of two-wheeler radiators becomes an important aspect of design.

High vehicle emission resulting in increasing the air pollution day by day has challenged and forced the automotive industry to look for alternate and more environment friendly technologies. The transformation of the automotive industry in near future towards green energy solutions has also fuelled the technological advancement in this industry. In order to fulfil this requirement, Electrical Vehicles (EVs) have emerged as the best solution available till now. It has become very popular because of the zero emission and higher wheel-drive efficiency. The vehicle has some limitations in terms of performance, cost, lifespan & battery safety. The EVs have lithium ion batteries incorporated to cater the drive power requirement. In order to maximize the vehicle performance, thermal management of the batteries becomes very critical. The battery thermal management system (BTMS) has crucial role in controlling the thermal behaviour of the batteries.

Recently, the use of air conditioning systems is growing rapidly due to increasing global temperatures. Considering enormous growth in the application of the air conditioning system, there is an urgent need to improve design, performance, and efficiency thereof. For example, the air conditioning systems that are being used these days are required to provide improved efficiency per unit of power consumed, and they are also required to have a smaller form factor as compared to conventional air conditioning systems. Therefore, a lot of modern air conditioning systems employ components such as internal heat exchanger, thermal expansion valves and forth to improve their performance while having a small form factor.

Compact heat exchangers are extensively used in the automotive sector especially in engine cooling and passenger cabin cooling systems. Considering the evolution of compact heat exchangers from the past several years, development on the compactness has grown up rapidly with the market demand. In line with the futuristic view, it has become mandatory to optimize their thermal performance along with compactness, manufacturing feasibility and durability requirement. The present work investigates the cumulative impact of various geometrical parameters of tube & fin design on heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. The parametric study determines the most optimized core matrix by considering the manufacturing constraints using the mathematical & analytical modeling. The system is mathematically modeled and then simulated to estimate the heat transfer rate, weight, free flow area, wetted area, etc.

With stringent requirements of fuel efficiency and emissions, the airflow and thermal management within the under-hood environment is gaining significance day by day. While adequate airflow is required for cooling requirements under various vehicle operating conditions, it is also necessary to optimize it for reduced cooling drag and fan power. Hence, the need of the day is to maximize cooling requirements of Condenser, Radiator, CAC and other heat exchangers with minimal power consumption. To achieve this objective and due to the complicated nature of 3D flow phenomenon within the under-hood environment, it is useful to perform 3D CFD studies during preliminary stages to shorten design time and improve the quality and reliability of product design. In this paper we present the results from a CFD under-hood analysis that was carried out for design, development and optimization of a CRFM (Condenser, Radiator and Fan Module).