Vehicle Coolant Heater Layout to Prevent Bubbles and Boost Heat Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles face challenges in efficiently heating coolant and maintaining battery or fuel cell temperatures due to the absence of a high-temperature heat source like an internal combustion engine, necessitating additional heating means that are less efficient.
Innovation Solution
A coolant heating device with a housing, heating unit, and support unit is designed to increase the heating area and prevent air bubble formation, featuring a vortex-inducing portion and a heating unit with a heat-generating pattern on its outer surface to enhance heating efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If a sheath heater is used to quickly raise coolant temperature, then heating speed is improved, but the heating area is limited and energy efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element is transformed from a linear sheath heater to a sheet-shaped heating element with heat-generating patterns distributed across its surface. This dimensional change from 1D to 2D dramatically increases the heating area while maintaining rapid heating capability, resolving the contradiction between heating speed and energy efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The heating sheet incorporates heat-generating patterns with varying local properties - different trace patterns and heating wire arrangements in different regions. This allows optimized heat distribution across the coolant flow path, improving overall energy efficiency while maintaining fast response time.
2Device complexity
If the inlet is positioned close to the heating unit, then the structure is compact, but air bubbles are generated and heating efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The inlet is positioned to allow coolant to enter and flow along the heating sheet before reaching the heating unit. This preliminary flow path ensures that coolant is pre-positioned for efficient heat transfer and prevents air bubble entrapment, maintaining heating efficiency without requiring a complex extended structure.
3Use of energy by moving object
If the heating area is increased to improve energy efficiency, then the heating unit becomes larger and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element is implemented as a thin sheet with heat-generating patterns rather than a bulky three-dimensional structure. This sheet-shaped design provides a large heating area for improved energy efficiency while maintaining a compact form factor, avoiding increased device complexity.
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 device increases the heated area of the coolant, enhances heating efficiency by double-stage heating, and prevents air bubble generation, improving temperature control in electric vehicles.
Implementation Method 1
a heating unit disposed inside the housing and having a heat-generating region formed on an outer circumferential surface thereof to heat the coolant within the housing
Implementation Method 2
a vortex-inducing portion is formed on an inner surface of the housing to induce a vortex flow of the coolant
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a coolant heating device for a vehicle, which is configured to increase the area in which coolant is heated and to prevent the formation of air bubbles in the coolant, thereby enhancing the heating efficiency of the coolant. The coolant heating device includes: a housing having an inlet through which the coolant is introduced, an outlet through which the coolant is discharged, and an internal space in which the coolant is heated; a heating unit disposed inside the housing and having a heat-generating region formed on an outer circumferential surface thereof to heat the coolant within the housing; and a support unit having one side joined to the outer circumferential surface of the heating unit to fixedly support the heating unit inside the housing. The support unit separates a space in which the heating unit is disposed from a space for supplying power to the heating unit within the housing.