Outdoor unit for vehicle and air conditioner for vehicle

Abstract

An outdoor unit for a vehicle according to the present disclosure comprises a housing (1) having a bottom plate (11) and a top plate (13) facing the bottom plate, a blowout part (17) provided in a center part of the top plate, an intake part (16) provided at an end part of the top plate, an outdoor blower (21) provided inside the housing directly below the blowout part and having an impeller (211) for generating an airflow flowing from the intake part to the blowout part, and an outdoor heat exchanger (20) provided inside the housing so as to face the intake part, the blades (214) of the impeller describing a shape having the action of rectifying an air flow (AF) flowing on the upstream side of the impeller, and the size of the blowout part being equal to or greater than the size of the entire upper surface of the impeller in top view. Through this configuration, the flow of air at the impeller end part of the blower of the outdoor unit for a vehicle is suppressed from interfering with the top plate positioned on the upper surface of the outdoor unit for a vehicle, and while the generation of noise due to interference is suppressed, the size of the cross section of a railway vehicle is kept in the range of a vehicle limit, and short circuiting can be suppressed.

Description

Vehicle outdoor unit and vehicle air conditioning device

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a vehicle outdoor unit and a vehicle air conditioning device.

[0002] The outdoor unit of a railway vehicle air conditioning system installed on a railway vehicle generally comprises a housing having an intake section and an outlet section, a blower with an impeller that is located directly below the outlet section and generates an air flow that flows from the intake section to the outlet section, and a heat exchanger located on the intake section side.

[0003] In an outdoor unit having the above configuration, the phenomenon in which air discharged to the outside through the outlet section is sucked into the inlet section and flows back into the heat exchanger is called a short circuit. When a short circuit occurs, the efficiency of the outdoor unit decreases. Therefore, in an outdoor unit having the above configuration, it is desirable to position the inlet section and the outlet section sufficiently apart.

[0004] When designing a railway vehicle, the cross-sectional size of the railway vehicle must be within the vehicle clearance. Therefore, in outdoor units for railway vehicles, it is difficult to arrange the intake section and the outlet section sufficiently apart while still staying within the vehicle clearance. Therefore, an invention has been disclosed that aims to suppress the occurrence of short circuits in outdoor units for vehicles in which the intake section is adjacent to the outlet section while staying within the vehicle clearance.

[0005] For example, the vehicle outdoor unit described in Patent Document 1 blocks part of the opening of the outlet section with a top plate, thereby mitigating the circumferential component of the air flow flowing toward the suction section, and the air flow at the end of the impeller blocked by the top plate is deflected toward the inside of the impeller and blows straight up, thereby suppressing the occurrence of short circuits.

[0006] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-10489

[0007] In the vehicle outdoor unit described in Patent Document 1, a portion of the air outlet is blocked by a top plate. Therefore, when the airflow at the end of the impeller of the blower located directly below the air outlet, which is blocked by the top plate, is deflected toward the inside of the impeller, it interferes with a cover located on the top surface of the vehicle outdoor unit, causing noise.

[0008] The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to prevent the air flow at the end of the impeller of the blower of the vehicle outdoor unit from interfering with the top plate located on the upper surface of the vehicle outdoor unit, thereby suppressing the generation of noise due to interference, while keeping the cross-sectional size of the railway vehicle within the vehicle limit and suppressing the occurrence of short circuits.

[0009] The vehicle outdoor unit of the present disclosure comprises a housing having a bottom plate and a top plate opposite the bottom plate, an outlet section provided in the center of the top plate, an intake section provided at an end of the top plate, an outdoor fan provided inside the housing directly below the outlet section and having an impeller that generates an airflow that flows from the intake section to the outlet section, and an outdoor heat exchanger provided inside the housing opposite the intake section, wherein the blade shape of the impeller has the effect of straightening the airflow flowing upstream of the impeller, and when viewed from above, the size of the outlet section is equal to or larger than the size of the entire top surface of the impeller.

[0010] According to the vehicle outdoor unit of the present disclosure, it is possible to prevent the air flow at the end of the impeller of the vehicle outdoor unit's blower from interfering with the top plate located on the upper surface of the vehicle outdoor unit, thereby suppressing the generation of noise due to interference, while keeping the cross-sectional size of the railway vehicle within the vehicle limit and suppressing the occurrence of short circuits.

[0011] 7 is a conceptual diagram showing an aspect of installation of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 1. FIG. 8 is a schematic plan view of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 1. FIG. 9 is a schematic top view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 1. FIG. 10 is a schematic plan view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 1. FIG. 11 is a Y-Y sectional view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 1. FIG. 12 is a X-X sectional view of an outdoor unit of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 1. FIG. 13 is a schematic top view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to prior art. FIG. 14 is a Y-Y sectional view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to prior art. FIG. 15 is a X-X sectional view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to prior art. FIG. 16 is a Y-Y sectional view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 1. FIG. 17 is a schematic top view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 2. FIG. 18 is a schematic plan view of an outdoor unit of a vehicle air conditioning device according to embodiment 2.

[0012] Hereinafter, a vehicle air conditioning device 100 according to an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings, taking a case where the vehicle is a railway vehicle as an example. In the drawings, the same or corresponding parts will be given the same reference numerals.

[0013] Embodiment 1. Embodiment 1 will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a railway vehicle according to embodiment 1. For ease of explanation, the following description defines a right-handed XYZ Cartesian coordinate system having an X axis parallel to the longitudinal direction of the railway vehicle, a Y axis parallel to the width direction of the railway vehicle, and a Z axis parallel to the vehicle height direction of the railway vehicle. The upward direction relative to the vehicle height direction is the positive Z axis direction.

[0014] As shown in Fig. 1, a vehicle air conditioning device 100 according to this embodiment is mounted on the roof RF of a railway vehicle PV. The vehicle air conditioning device 100 conditions a passenger compartment PR defined inside the railway vehicle PV. Although Fig. 1 shows one vehicle air conditioning device 100 mounted on the roof RF of the railway vehicle PV, multiple units may be mounted.

[0015] Next, the vehicle air conditioning device 100 will be described in detail using Figure 2. Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of the vehicle air conditioning device 100 according to Embodiment 1. As shown in Figure 2, the vehicle air conditioning device 100 has a housing 1, which has a box-shaped base frame 12 having a bottom plate 11, and a top plate 13 that closes an upper opening of the base frame 12. Note that in Figure 2, the top plate 13 is omitted in order to show the interior of the housing 1.

[0016] The housing 1 further has a first partition wall 14 and a second partition wall 15 that divide the internal space defined by the base frame 12 and the top plate 13 into an outdoor unit chamber S1, an indoor unit chamber S2, and a compressor chamber S3. The outdoor unit chamber S1, the indoor unit chamber S2, and the compressor chamber S3 are arranged side by side in the X-axis direction.

[0017] In this embodiment, the outdoor unit chamber S1 mainly houses two outdoor heat exchangers 20 and an outdoor blower 21. The indoor unit chamber S2 houses two indoor heat exchangers 30, an indoor blower 31, and two return air intakes 32. The compressor chamber S3 houses two compressors 40. The detailed structure of the outdoor unit chamber S1 of the vehicle air conditioning device 100 of this embodiment will be described below with reference to Figures 3 to 6. Note that the detailed structures of the indoor unit chamber S2 and compressor chamber S3 of the vehicle air conditioning device 100 are conventional structures, and description thereof will be omitted.

[0018] FIG. 3 is a schematic top view showing only the outdoor unit chamber S1 of the vehicle air conditioning device 100 according to Embodiment 1. The dotted line in FIG. 3 schematically indicates the top surface of the impeller 211. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of the outdoor unit chamber S1 of the vehicle air conditioning device 100 according to Embodiment 1. Note that FIG. 4 omits the top plate 13 of the outdoor unit chamber S1 shown in FIG. 3 . FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the outdoor unit chamber S1 of the vehicle air conditioning device 100 according to Embodiment 1 in the Y-axis direction. Note that FIG. 5 shows a cross-section taken along the dashed-dotted line Y-Y shown in FIG. 4 . FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the outdoor unit chamber S1 of the vehicle air conditioning device 100 according to Embodiment 1 in the X-axis direction. Note that FIG. 6 shows a cross-section taken along the dashed-dotted line X-X shown in FIG. 4 . In the following description, the outdoor unit chamber S1 will be referred to as the vehicle outdoor unit S1. Furthermore, of the top plates 13 of the housing 1, the top plate 13 that defines the outdoor unit chamber S1 will be simply referred to as the top plate 13, and of the bottom plates 11 of the housing 1, the bottom plate 11 that defines the outdoor unit chamber S1 will be simply referred to as the bottom plate 11.

[0019] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 , the top plate 13 has an opening at its center, forming a blowout section 17 that connects the inside of the housing 1 to the outside. Also, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 , the top plate 13 has an opening at its end, forming a suction section 16 that connects the inside of the housing 1 to the outside. As shown in FIG. 5 , one suction section 16 is designated as a first suction section 16a, and the other suction section 16 is designated as a second suction section 16b. In this embodiment, the normals to the suction surfaces of the first suction section 16a and the second suction section 16b form acute angles with the axis of the outdoor blower 21. Also, as shown in FIG. 3 , the blowout section 17 in this embodiment is composed of multiple holes. In this embodiment, the entire area in the center of the top plate 13 where the multiple holes are provided is designated as the blowout section 17. The blowout section 17 may be composed of a single large hole instead of multiple holes. The suction section 16 may also be composed of multiple holes or a single large hole. In this embodiment, the plurality of holes are formed by opening a plurality of locations in the center of the top plate 13, but the plurality of holes may be formed by opening a single location in the center of the top plate 13 to form one large hole and then covering the single hole with a separate mesh cover. Note that, as shown in Figure 3, the size of the blowout section 17 in top view is equal to or larger than the size of the entire top surface of the impeller 211 described below.

[0020] 5, an outdoor heat exchanger 20 is provided inside the housing 1 opposite each of the suction sections 16. The outdoor heat exchanger 20 provided opposite the first suction section 16a is referred to as the first outdoor heat exchanger 20a, and the outdoor heat exchanger 20 provided opposite the second suction section 16b is referred to as the second outdoor heat exchanger 20b. In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, the suction sections 16 and the outdoor heat exchangers 20 are not provided in the X-axis direction relative to the blow-out section 17 and an outdoor blower 21 (described later), but are provided only in the Y-axis direction.

[0021] As shown in FIG. 5 , an outdoor blower 21 is provided inside the housing 1 directly below the blower section 17. That is, the outdoor blower 21 is provided inside the intake section 16 and the outdoor heat exchanger 20. In this embodiment, the outdoor blower 21 is provided between the first outdoor heat exchanger 20a and the second outdoor heat exchanger 20b. Specifically, the first outdoor heat exchanger 20a and the second outdoor heat exchanger 20b are arranged symmetrically with respect to an XZ imaginary plane VP passing through the axis of the outdoor blower 21. The XZ imaginary plane VP refers to an imaginary plane parallel to the X-axis and the Z-axis. The angle θ between the first outdoor heat exchanger 20a and the bottom plate 11 is equal to the angle θ between the second outdoor heat exchanger 20b and the bottom plate 11. The angle θ may be set as appropriate. In this embodiment, two outdoor heat exchangers 20 are provided so that θ is equal to or greater than 20 degrees and equal to or less than 70 degrees. In addition, it is preferable that the number of outdoor blowers 21 is one. This can improve maintainability.

[0022] The outdoor blower 21 also includes an impeller 211 and a motor 212 that rotates the impeller 211. The impeller 211 also includes a boss 213 that rotates around its axis and a plurality of blades 214 that are disposed on the outer periphery of the boss 213. A rotating shaft of the motor 212 is directly connected to the impeller 211. The motor 212 is fixed to the bottom plate 11. In other words, in this embodiment, the motor 212 functions to rotate the impeller 211 and to support the impeller 211. The blades 214 of the impeller 211 have a shape that acts to straighten the airflow AF that flows upstream of the blades 214. As an example of a shape that acts to straighten the airflow AF that flows upstream of the blades 214, for example, a so-called backward-tilted blade shape may be adopted, in which the entire blade 214 is inclined toward the downstream side of the airflow AF, as shown in FIG. 5 . The shape of the backward-swept wing will be described in detail later.

[0023] Here, the airflow AF generated inside the housing 1 of this embodiment will be described in detail. In the impeller 211 configured as described above, energizing the motor 212 causes the impeller 211 to rotate, blowing air in the Z-axis direction toward the bottom plate 11. Therefore, the outdoor blower 21 according to this embodiment takes in outside air through the first suction section 16a and the second suction section 16b, thereby forming an airflow AF inside the housing 1 as shown in FIG. 5 . In this case, the airflow AF passes through the first outdoor heat exchanger 20a and the second outdoor heat exchanger 20b in their respective thickness directions, and then flows out from the blowout section 17 to the outside.

[0024] A bell mouth 22 may be provided to rectify the airflow AF formed by the outdoor fan 21. The bell mouth 22 is provided to surround the impeller 211 of the outdoor fan 21 in the circumferential direction about the Z axis.

[0025] The vehicle air conditioning device 100 of this embodiment is configured as described above. However, there are some concerns that arise when designing the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of the vehicle air conditioning device 100. These concerns will be described below.

[0026] First, in the vehicle outdoor unit S1 configured as described above, it is necessary to suppress short circuiting, which is a phenomenon in which air discharged to the outside through the outlet section 17 is sucked into the inlet section 16 and flows again into the outdoor heat exchanger 20. This is because the efficiency of the outdoor unit decreases when short circuiting occurs. Therefore, in the vehicle outdoor unit S1 configured as described above, it is desirable to position the inlet section 16 and the outlet section 17 sufficiently apart.

[0027] However, when designing a railway vehicle, the cross-sectional size of the railway vehicle must be within the vehicle clearance range, and therefore, there is concern that it may be difficult to arrange the intake section 16 and the outlet section 17 sufficiently apart while keeping the cross-sectional size within the vehicle clearance range in the vehicle outdoor unit S1.

[0028] As described above, it is required to suppress the occurrence of short circuits while staying within the vehicle envelope in the vehicle outdoor unit S1 in which the intake section 16 is adjacent to the outlet section 17. As an example of the vehicle outdoor unit S1 that can suppress the occurrence of short circuits while staying within the vehicle envelope, a conventional vehicle outdoor unit will be described with reference to Figures 7 to 9.

[0029] FIG. 7 is a schematic top view of a conventional vehicle outdoor unit. The dotted line in FIG. 7 schematically indicates the top surface of the impeller 211. A schematic plan view of the conventional vehicle outdoor unit is omitted because it is similar to FIG. 4. FIG. 8 is a diagonal cross-sectional view of the conventional vehicle outdoor unit. FIG. 8 shows a cross-section taken along the dashed dotted line Y-Y shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the conventional vehicle outdoor unit in the X-axis direction. FIG. 9 shows a cross-section taken along the dashed dotted line X-X shown in FIG. 4.

[0030] 7 and 8, in the conventional vehicle outdoor unit, the portion of the top plate 13 located between the suction section 16 and the blowout section 17 is formed so as to cover a portion of the outer circumferential end of the blades 214. In other words, a portion of the opening of the blowout section 17 is blocked by the top plate 13. This reduces the circumferential component of the airflow AF flowing toward the suction section 16, and the airflow AF at the outer circumferential end of the blades 214 blocked by the top plate 13 is deflected toward the inside of the impeller 211 and blown straight up. As a result, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of short circuiting while staying within the vehicle limit.

[0031] However, in the conventional vehicle outdoor unit, the outer peripheral ends of the blades 214 of the impeller 211 of the exterior blower 21, which is located directly below the outlet section 17, are blocked by the top plate 13. Therefore, when the airflow AF at the outer peripheral ends of the blades 214 is deflected toward the inside of the impeller 211, it interferes with the top plate 13 located above the impeller 211. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8 , when the axis of the impeller 211 of the exterior blower 21 forms an acute angle with the normal to the suction surface of the suction section 16, the airflow AF becomes approximately V-shaped. This increases the flow resistance of the airflow AF flowing inside the housing 1, and destabilizes the blade tip vortex 215 formed at the outer peripheral ends of the blades 214. Furthermore, when a bell mouth 22 is provided, the blade tip vortex 215 becomes unstable, causing the airflow AF at the outer peripheral ends of the blades 214 to interfere with the bell mouth 22 as well, as shown in FIG. 8 . The occurrence of interference increases pressure loss inside the housing 1, causing the outdoor blower 21 to operate at an operating point that deviates from the ideal operating point. This causes pressure fluctuations and torque fluctuations in the impeller 211 due to interference between the top plate 13 and the airflow AF flowing downstream of the blades 214. Vibrations generated by the torque and pressure fluctuations propagate to the lower part of the housing 1 as indicated by the dashed-dotted arrow AL1 in FIG. 8. Note that the frequency components of the propagated vibrations are dominated by peak fluctuations of discrete frequency noise synchronized with the blade passing frequency resulting from the number of blades 214 and the rotation speed of the impeller 211. As indicated by the dotted-line arrow AL2 in FIG. 8, the propagated vibrations propagate as vibration noise from the bottom plate 11 below the housing 1, and are presumably transmitted to passengers in the passenger compartment PR.

[0032] Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 9 , a cross-sectional view of a conventional vehicle outdoor unit taken along the X-axis generally does not include an intake section 16 or an exterior heat exchanger 20 to correct the flow direction of the airflow AF. Therefore, the outlet section 17 is wider than in FIG. 8 because there is no need to worry about short-circuiting. As described above, because the exterior blower 21 operates at an operating point other than the ideal operating point, the airflow AF is discharged from the wide-opening outlet section 17 in a direction shown in FIG. 9 that is not the axial direction. At this time, as indicated by the dotted arrow AL2 in FIG. 9 , discrete frequency noise with a peak at the blade passing frequency also propagates strongly in the same direction. This suggests that the noise may be transmitted to nearby residents outside the railroad vehicle RV and to train users on the station platform. Note that the propagation of vibrations and noise due to torque fluctuations in the impeller 211 also occurs in the same manner as in FIG. 8 .

[0033] Therefore, it is difficult to suppress the occurrence of short circuits and achieve low noise levels in a vehicle outdoor unit while staying within the vehicle limits.

[0034] In contrast, in the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of this embodiment, the shape of the blades 214 of the impeller 211 has a shape that has the effect of straightening the airflow AF flowing upstream of the blades 214, and when viewed from above, the size of the blowing section 17 is greater than or equal to the size of the entire upper surface of the impeller 211.

[0035] As an example of a shape that has the effect of rectifying the airflow AF flowing upstream of the blade 214, for example, the above-mentioned backward-inclined blade shape may be adopted. The backward-inclined blade shape will be described in more detail. The backward-inclined blade shape is such that a line connecting the chord center point at the inner circumferential end of the blade 214 with the chord center point at the outer circumferential end of the blade 214 is inclined toward the positive direction of the Z axis, i.e., toward the downstream side of the airflow, as it approaches the outer periphery. The chord center line connecting the chord center points from the inner circumferential end to the outer circumferential end of the blade 214 forms a curve that is convex toward the downstream side of the airflow throughout the entire radial region of the impeller 211. Here, the chord center point is the midpoint of the line connecting the leading edge and the trailing edge in a developed view of a cylindrical cross section of the blade 214.

[0036] As described above, for example, by employing a backward-swept blade shape, it is possible to rectify the airflow AF flowing on the upstream side of the blades 214. By rectifying the airflow AF flowing on the upstream side of the blades 214, it is possible to operate the exterior blower 21 at an ideal operating point, and it is possible to make the airflow AF flowing on the downstream side of the blades 214 flow in the axial flow direction. Therefore, in the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of the present embodiment, by changing the shape of the blades 214 of the impeller 211 of the exterior blower 21, it is possible to make the airflow AF flowing on the downstream side of the blades 214 flow in the axial flow direction, and therefore it is possible to suppress the occurrence of short circuiting while staying within the vehicle limit range, similar to the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of the conventional technology.

[0037] Furthermore, in the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of this embodiment, the shape of the blades 214 of the impeller 211 of the exterior blower 21 is modified to suppress the occurrence of short circuits, thereby allowing the size of the blowout section 17 to be larger than that of the conventional vehicle outdoor unit S1. Therefore, by making the size of the blowout section 17 equal to or larger than the entire upper surface of the impeller 211 in a top view, the outer circumferential edge of the blades 214 can be prevented from being blocked by the top plate 13. This prevents interference between the airflow AF at the outer circumferential edge of the blades 214 and the top plate 13. Even when a bellmouth 22 is provided, interference between the airflow AF at the outer circumferential edge of the blades 214 and the bellmouth 22 can be prevented. Furthermore, as described above, the outdoor blower 21 can be operated at an ideal operating point, thereby suppressing the generation of vibrations and vibration noise caused by torque fluctuations and pressure fluctuations. Therefore, the generation of noise due to interference can be suppressed, thereby suppressing the transmission of noise to passengers in the passenger compartment PR, nearby residents outside the railway vehicle RV, and railway users on the station platform.

[0038] As described above, in the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of this embodiment, the shape of the blades 214 of the impeller 211 has the effect of straightening the airflow AF flowing upstream of the blades 214, and when viewed from above, the size of the blowing section 17 is equal to or larger than the size of the entire upper surface of the impeller 211. This prevents the airflow AF at the outer circumferential ends of the blades 214 of the impeller 211 of the outdoor blower 21 from interfering with the top plate 13 located on the upper surface of the vehicle outdoor unit S1, suppressing the generation of noise due to interference, while keeping the cross-sectional size of the railway vehicle within the vehicle limit and suppressing the occurrence of short circuits.

[0039] As described above, it is preferable that the number of outdoor blowers 21 is one. However, using only one outdoor blower 21 increases the size and rotation speed of the outdoor blower 21 in order to ensure cooling capacity, which raises concerns about increased noise. In the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of this embodiment, the blades 214 of the impeller 211 of the outdoor blower 21 are shaped to rectify the airflow AF flowing upstream of the blades 214, and the size of the blowout section 17 is equal to or larger than the entire upper surface of the impeller 211 in a top view. This prevents the airflow AF at the outer circumferential ends of the blades 214 of the impeller 211 of the outdoor blower 21 from interfering with the top plate 13 located on the upper surface of the vehicle outdoor unit S1, thereby suppressing noise generation due to interference. Therefore, the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of this embodiment is able to suppress noise even when using only one outdoor blower 21, which is prone to increasing noise.

[0040] Furthermore, as described above, the vehicle outdoor unit S1 of this embodiment can be kept within the vehicle clearance. Specifically, the height of the highest point of the top plate 13 can be set to be equal to or less than the vehicle clearance. As shown in FIG. 10 , when the height from the bottom plate 11 of the housing 1 to the vehicle clearance is defined as dimension Z, the height from the bottom plate 11 of the housing 1 to the highest point of the top plate 13 is defined as dimension z, the height from the bottom plate 11 to the bottom surface of the impeller 211 is defined as dimension H, and the height from the bottom surface of the impeller 211 to the top surface of the impeller 211 is defined as dimension h, the relative dimensions are preferably z / Z = 0.7 to 0.9, (h + H) / z = 0.7 to 0.9, and h / H = 0.3 to 0.6.

[0041] Embodiment 2 An outdoor unit S11 for a vehicle in Embodiment 2 will be described using Figures 11 and 12. As shown in Figures 11 and 12, the outdoor unit S11 for a vehicle in Embodiment 2 has an intake section 16 and an outdoor heat exchanger 20 provided so as to surround an outlet section 17 and an outdoor blower 21. That is, in contrast to Embodiment 1 in which the intake section 16 and the outdoor heat exchanger 20 are provided only in the Y-axis direction relative to the outlet section 17 and the outdoor blower 21, Embodiment 2 differs in that the intake section 16 and the outdoor heat exchanger 20 are provided in both the X-axis and Y-axis directions relative to the outlet section 17 and the outdoor blower 21.

[0042] In the vehicle outdoor unit S11 of embodiment 2, the suction section 16 and the outdoor heat exchanger 20 are provided so as to surround the blower section 17 and the outdoor blower 21, so that the pressure loss on the suction section 16 side inside the housing 1 of the vehicle outdoor unit S11 can be reduced compared to embodiment 1. Because the pressure loss can be reduced, the outdoor blower 21 can be operated at a more ideal operating point. Therefore, the airflow AF flowing downstream of the blades 214 can be made to flow further in the axial direction.

[0043] As described above, in the vehicle outdoor unit S11 according to the second embodiment, in addition to the same effects as those of the first embodiment, the airflow AF flowing downstream of the blades 214 can be made to flow further in the axial direction than in the first embodiment, thereby further suppressing the occurrence of short circuiting. Therefore, the blow-out section 17 can be made wider than in the first embodiment, which further suppresses interference between the airflow AF at the outer circumferential ends of the blades 214 and the top plate 13, thereby further suppressing the generation of noise due to interference.

[0044] The configurations described in the above embodiments are merely examples of the contents of the present disclosure, and may be combined with other known technologies. Furthermore, parts of the configurations may be omitted or modified without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0045] 1 Housing, 11 Bottom plate, 13 Top plate, 16 Intake section, 17 Outlet section, 20 Outdoor heat exchanger, 21 Outdoor blower, 211 Impeller, 214 Blades, 100 200 Vehicle air conditioner, AF Air flow, S1 S11 Vehicle outdoor unit

Claims

1. An outdoor unit for a vehicle comprising: a housing having a bottom plate and a top plate opposite the bottom plate; an outlet section provided in the center of the top plate; an intake section provided at an end of the top plate; an outdoor fan provided inside the housing directly below the outlet section and having an impeller that generates an airflow that flows from the intake section to the outlet section; and an outdoor heat exchanger provided inside the housing opposite the intake section, wherein the blade shape of the impeller has the effect of rectifying the airflow flowing upstream of the impeller, and the size of the outlet section is equal to or larger than the size of the entire top surface of the impeller when viewed from above.

2. The vehicle outdoor unit according to claim 1, wherein the blade shape of the impeller is a backward inclined blade shape.

3. The outdoor unit for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the angle formed between the axis of the outdoor blower and the normal to the suction surface of the suction portion is an acute angle.

4. The outdoor unit for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the height from the bottom plate to the vehicle limit is defined as Z dimension, the height from the bottom plate to the highest point of the top plate is defined as z dimension, the height from the bottom plate to the underside of the impeller is defined as H dimension, and the height from the underside of the impeller to the top side of the impeller is defined as h dimension, and the dimensional relationships between the Z dimension, the z dimension, the H dimension, and the h dimension are z / Z = 0.7 to 0.9, (h+H) / z = 0.7 to 0.9, and h / H = 0.3 to 0.

6.

5. The vehicle outdoor unit according to claim 1, wherein the outdoor blower is one unit.

6. The vehicle outdoor unit according to claim 1, wherein a bell mouth is provided so as to surround the impeller.

7. The vehicle outdoor unit according to claim 1, wherein the intake section and the outdoor heat exchanger are provided so as to surround the blow-out section and the outdoor blower.

8. A vehicle air conditioning system comprising an outdoor vehicle unit according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

Images