Vehicle with side duct for limiting central heat flow

Abstract

The invention relates to a vehicle having a side duct for limiting a central heat flow. The front compartment (6) is formed in the outer vehicle body (5) and is delimited by a front bumper (8) and a front vehicle cover (9); the central pipeline (12) extends between the front bumper (8) and the front vehicle cover (9) and is opened outwards through the front bumper (8) and the front vehicle cover (9); the front radiator (11) is mounted along the central pipeline (12); the two side pipelines (13) are arranged on two opposite sides of the central pipeline (12); and two side ducts (13) extending between the front bumper (8) and the front bonnet (9) and opening outwardly through both the front bumper (8) and the front bonnet (9) to limit a central airflow (F1) supplied along the central duct (12) between two side airflows (F2) supplied along the side ducts (13).

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This patent application claims the priority of Italian Patent Application No. 102023000012393 filed on June 16, 2023, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] The present invention relates to a vehicle.

[0004] The invention is particularly advantageously applicable to hybrid vehicles provided with an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, to which reference will be made explicitly in the following description without loss of generality thereby. Background Art

[0005] In the field of hybrid vehicles, a vehicle is known that includes a support frame defining a portion of a floor of the vehicle; a passenger compartment mounted on the support frame and protruding upward from the floor; an outer body; a front compartment formed in the outer body and defined by a front bumper and a front hood; and a rear compartment formed in the outer body.

[0006] The vehicle is also provided with a main internal combustion engine accommodated in the rear compartment, having a compressor for supplying compressed air to the main engine, a heat exchanger for cooling the air supplied to the main engine by the compressor, and a pair of inlet nozzles for supplying air from the outside to the heat exchanger.

[0007] The vehicle also includes at least one pair of additional inlet nozzles for connecting the outside and the passenger compartment to each other; an air heating / conditioning system for heating / conditioning air supplied to the passenger compartment through the additional inlet nozzles; and an auxiliary electric motor accommodated in the front compartment and associated with a front radiator installed along a supply pipe communicating with the outside.

[0008] The vehicle also comprises a pneumatic bottom fixed to the supporting frame, defining a part of the floor and comprising a front bottom mounted in the area of ​​the front compartment, a rear bottom mounted in the area of ​​the rear compartment and a central bottom mounted in the area of ​​the passenger compartment.

[0009] Since the vehicle has to withstand relatively large vertical loads, the front underbody must be closed and the supply pipe must extend from the front bumper through the front hood.

[0010] Known vehicles of the above mentioned type have some drawbacks which are mainly due to the air flow heated by the front radiator and supplied along the supply duct and through the front bonnet causing heating of the air supplied through the above mentioned inlet nozzles and impairing the correct operation of the heat exchanger and the heating / conditioning system. Summary of the invention

[0011] The object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle which does not suffer from the above-mentioned drawbacks and which can be manufactured in a simple and economical manner.

[0012] According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle according to the accompanying claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings showing non-limiting embodiments of the invention, in which:

[0014] Figure 1 and 2 are two schematic perspective views of a preferred embodiment of a vehicle according to the invention, with some parts removed for greater clarity; and

[0015] Figure 3 yes Figure 1 and 2 A schematic perspective view of a detail of a vehicle with some parts removed for greater clarity. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] refer to Figure 1 , 2 1 and 3 , reference numeral 1 denotes a vehicle as a whole, in particular a hybrid vehicle, which includes a support frame 2 defining at least a portion of a floor 3 of the vehicle 1 , a passenger compartment 4 mounted on the frame 2 and protruding upward from the floor 3 , and an outer body 5 .

[0017] The vehicle 1 further includes a front compartment 6 formed in the vehicle body 5 and a rear compartment 7 formed in the vehicle body 5 .

[0018] The front compartment 6 is delimited by a front bumper 8 and a front hood 9 and accommodates inside a first motor 10 , in particular an electric motor, and a front radiator 11 for cooling the motor 10 .

[0019] The radiator 11 is arranged along a central duct 12 which extends within the compartment 6 between the bumper 8 and the hood 9 and opens outwardly through both the bumper 8 and the hood 9 .

[0020] The compartment 6 also accommodates internally two side ducts 13 , which are arranged on opposite sides of the duct 12 , extend between the bumper 8 and the hood 9 , are S-shaped and open outwards through both the bumper 8 and the hood 9 .

[0021] The bonnet 9 in this case has two openings 14 , each of which is provided with a dividing partition 15 defining two outlet mouths 16 , 17 , mouth 16 being an internal opening communicating with the duct 12 and mouth 17 being an external opening communicating with the duct 13 .

[0022] In use, the air flow F flowing into the compartment 6 during normal driving of the vehicle 1 is divided into a central air flow F1 supplied along the duct 12 through the radiator 11 to the nozzle 16 and two side air flows F2 supplied along the associated duct 13 to the associated nozzle 17 .

[0023] When flowing out of the bonnet 9 , the central airflow F1 is delimited in the transverse direction by two side airflows F2 which do not flow through the radiator 11 and therefore have a lower temperature than that of the central airflow F1 .

[0024] The rear compartment 7 accommodates internally: a second engine 18, in particular an internal combustion engine, a known and not shown turbocharger for supplying compressed air to the engine 18, and at least one heat exchanger (not shown), generally called an “intercooler”, for cooling the compressed air supplied to the engine 18 by the turbocharger (not shown).

[0025] The vehicle 1 is also provided with a pair of inlet nozzles 19 which are formed between the passenger compartment 4 and the rear compartment 7 and open outwardly through the vehicle body 5 in the area of ​​the sides of the vehicle 1 to supply air to a heat exchanger (not shown).

[0026] The vehicle 1 also includes: a known air heating / conditioning system (not shown here) for supplying heated / conditioned air into the passenger compartment 4, a first pair of inlet nozzles 20 formed below the hood 9 for supplying air into the passenger compartment 4 through the air heating / conditioning system, and a second pair of inlet nozzles 21 formed along the lower edge of the front windshield 22 for supplying air into the passenger compartment 4 through the air heating / conditioning system.

[0027] The mouths 19, 20, 21 in each pair of mouths 19, 20, 21 are substantially symmetrical relative to a longitudinal plane of symmetry of the vehicle and are arranged so that the distance between the mouths 17 measured across a forward movement direction 23 of the vehicle 1 is smaller than the distance between the mouths 19, the distance between the mouths 20 and the distance between the mouths 21 also measured across the direction 23.

[0028] Thus, airflow F2 (ie, low temperature airflow) extends between nozzles 19, 20, 21 and prevents airflow F1 (ie, high temperature airflow) from reaching nozzles 19, 20, 21 and impairing proper operation of radiator 11 and the aforementioned heat exchanger (not shown).

[0029] The vehicle 1 finally comprises a pneumatic bottom 24 which is fixed to the frame 2 , defines part of the floor 3 and comprises a front bottom 25 mounted in the region of the front compartment 6 , a rear bottom 26 mounted in the region of the rear compartment 7 and a central bottom 27 mounted in the region of the passenger compartment 4 .

[0030] At least the front bottom 25 is closed in order to impose relatively high vertical loads on the vehicle 1 .

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising: A support frame (2); a passenger compartment (4); an outer body (5); a front compartment (6) formed in the outer body (5) and defined by a front bumper (8) and a front hood (9); a rear compartment (7) formed in the outer body (5); a central duct (12) extending between the front bumper (8) and the front hood (9) and opening outward through both the front bumper (8) and the front hood (9); and a front radiator (11) installed in the front compartment (6) and along the central duct (12), characterized in that the vehicle also includes two side ducts (13) which are arranged on opposite sides of the central duct (12), extending between the front bumper (8) and the front hood (9) and opening outward through both the front bumper (8) and the front hood (9) to restrict a central airflow (F1) flowing along the central duct (12) between two side airflows (F2) flowing along the side ducts (13).

2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein: The two side ducts (13) are arranged on opposite sides of the front radiator (11).

3. The vehicle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: Each of the side ducts (13) is substantially S-shaped.

4. The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising at least one pair of first inlet nozzles (20, 21) for connecting the passenger compartment (4) and the outside to each other and allowing ambient air to flow into the passenger compartment (4), the first inlet nozzles (20, 21) in each pair of first inlet nozzles (20, 21) being formed on the outer side of the side duct (13).

5. The vehicle according to claim 4, further comprising an air heating / conditioning system interposed between the first inlet nozzle (20, 21) and the passenger compartment (4) to heat / condition the air flowing through the first inlet nozzle (20, 21).

6. The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: a main engine (18), in particular an internal combustion engine, housed in the rear compartment (7); a compressor for supplying compressed air to the main engine (18); at least one heat exchanger for cooling the air supplied by the compressor to the main engine (18); and at least one pair of second inlet nozzles (19) formed between the passenger compartment (4) and the rear compartment (7) to connect the heat exchanger and the outside to each other, the second inlet nozzles (19) in each pair of second inlet nozzles (19) being formed on the outer side of the side duct (13).

7. The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein: The front bonnet (9) has at least one central opening (16) for the passage of the central airflow (F1) and for each of the side ducts (13) has a respective side opening (17) for the passage of the associated side airflow (F2).

8. A vehicle according to claim 7 when dependent on claim 4 and / or 6, wherein: The inlet mouths (19, 20, 21) in each pair of inlet mouths (19, 20, 21) are substantially symmetrical relative to a longitudinal plane of symmetry of the vehicle and are arranged at a distance from each other measured transversely to a forward movement direction (23) of the vehicle, which distance is greater than a distance between the side openings (17) also measured transversely to the forward movement direction (23).

9. The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising an auxiliary motor (10), in particular an electric motor, which is associated with the front radiator (11) and is cooled thereby.

10. The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein: The central duct (12) and the side ducts (13) extend through the front compartment (6).

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