Composite Deflector Airflow Orientation in Vehicle Seals
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing shutter devices for motor vehicle air intakes face challenges in optimizing airflow to heat exchangers due to constraints in vehicle design, leading to incomplete cooling and potential damage from wide, rigid deflectors in accidents.
Innovation Solution
A closure device featuring a fixed deflector made from a combination of rigid and flexible materials, where the rigid material provides structural integrity and the flexible material allows for deformation in impacts, ensuring effective airflow redirection and minimizing damage during accidents.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a fixed deflector is made entirely of rigid material to ensure structural integrity and effective airflow redirection, then the deflector can maintain its shape and deflect airflow properly, but it causes significant damage in accidents and has excessive resistance to breaking
Solution Approach 1:
The fixed deflector is made from a composite material comprising a rigid material (such as polypropylene with glass fibers) and a flexible material (such as thermoplastic elastomer). This composite structure allows the deflector to maintain structural integrity for effective airflow redirection while enabling controlled deformation and breaking during impacts to reduce damage to other components.
2Temperature
If very wide flaps are used to deflect airflow sufficiently to cool unaffected parts of the heat exchanger, then the airflow deflection is adequate, but the torque required to rotate these flaps becomes very high
Solution Approach 1:
The shutter device separates the functions of movable flaps and fixed deflector. The movable flaps (narrower in width) control the opening and closing of the air intake, while the fixed deflector (extending over at least half the width of the air inlet) is specifically designed to deflect airflow to cool unaffected peripheral zones of the heat exchanger. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function, reducing the torque requirement on movable flaps.
3Temperature
If a fixed deflector is made wide to cool peripheral zones of the heat exchanger, then cooling effectiveness is improved, but the deflector becomes a critical component that could cause significant damage in accidents
Solution Approach 1:
The fixed deflector uses a composite material structure where the rigid material provides the necessary structural integrity for effective airflow deflection and cooling, while the flexible material enables controlled deformation and breaking during impacts. This allows the deflector to be sufficiently wide for cooling purposes while reducing damage potential in accident scenarios.
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
The solution ensures optimal airflow redirection to heat exchangers, reduces drag, and minimizes damage by allowing the deflector to break and deform during impacts, preventing harm to other components and maintaining structural integrity.
Implementation Method 1
the fixed deflector is arranged, when it is installed in a motor vehicle, to bring the air flow entering through the motor vehicle air intake towards a peripheral zone of a heat exchanger
Implementation Method 2
the first material makes it possible to ensure the rigidity of the fixed deflector. This rigidity must in fact be sufficient so that the flow of incoming air does not deform this fixed deflector too much
Implementation Method 3
the parts made of the first (rigid) material can break while remaining integral with each other thanks to the second (more flexible) material. Thus, it is avoided that the fixed deflector as a whole has a greater resistance than that of other neighboring components
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5
AI summary
The invention relates, in particular, to a sealing device (100) for sealing an air inlet of a motor vehicle, comprising a set of movable flaps (101) and a stationary deflector (102), said stationary deflector (102) being positioned downstream of the set of movable flaps (101) and being arranged to convey the air entering through the air inlet to a peripheral area of a heat exchanger (200).