Battery Cooling Refrigeration Cycle with Parallel Oil-Back Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery cooling refrigeration cycle devices face challenges in efficiently managing refrigerant flow rates to prevent oil retention, which can impair lubrication and cooling performance without increasing overall power consumption.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a refrigeration cycle device with a temperature control unit and an oil-back control unit that adjusts refrigerant flow rates in parallel systems to flush away retained oil without increasing the overall refrigerant flow rate, ensuring efficient cooling and lubrication while minimizing power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the refrigerant flow rate is increased to flush away retained oil in parallel systems, then oil retention is prevented, but overall power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The refrigeration cycle is divided into multiple parallel systems, allowing independent control of refrigerant flow in each system. The oil-back control unit can selectively increase flow rate in specific parallel systems where oil retention is detected, rather than increasing flow throughout the entire system, thus preventing oil accumulation while minimizing energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
Different flow rates are applied to different parallel systems based on their specific conditions. The oil-back control unit identifies which parallel systems have oil retention issues and applies higher flow rates only to those specific systems, while maintaining normal flow rates in systems that do not require oil flushing, thereby resolving the contradiction locally rather than globally.
2Reliability
If the refrigerant flow rate is increased to flush away retained oil, then lubrication performance is improved, but cooling efficiency deteriorates due to increased power consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The parallel system architecture allows the refrigeration cycle to maintain efficient cooling in systems operating at normal flow rates while separately addressing lubrication needs in specific systems by increasing flow rate only where oil retention is detected, thus preserving overall cooling efficiency while improving lubrication performance where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The oil-back control unit applies different flow rate strategies to different parallel systems based on their specific operational conditions and oil retention status, optimizing each system's performance characteristics locally rather than compromising overall system efficiency through uniform flow rate increases.
3Device complexity
If a single refrigeration system is used for battery cooling, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to prevent oil retention in specific zones is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The refrigeration cycle is segmented into multiple parallel systems, each capable of independent flow rate control. This segmentation enables targeted oil-back prevention in specific zones where oil retention is detected, while maintaining relatively simple control logic through the oil-back control unit that selectively adjusts flow rates in affected parallel systems rather than requiring complex global control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively adjusts battery temperatures and flushes away retained oil without raising overall refrigerant flow rates, thereby preventing performance deterioration and reducing power consumption in the refrigeration cycle.
Implementation Method 1
a refrigeration cycle including a plurality of parallel systems for cooling the battery
Implementation Method 2
a vapor compression refrigeration cycle is used for adjusting the temperature of the battery
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigeration cycle cools a battery. A controller controls a refrigerant flow rate flowing through a battery cooling system so as to adjust a temperature of the battery. The controller adjusts the refrigerant flow rate flowing in the battery cooling system so that the oil retained in the battery cooling system is flushed toward the compressor. The battery cooling system has a plurality of parallel systems. Electric expansion valves as flow adjusting valves are controlled so as to intermittently provide an oil-back operation. In the oil-back operation, the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing through a part among the plurality of parallel systems is increased more than a flow rate of the refrigerant flowed by a temperature control unit.