Cooling Element Distributor for Uniform Two-Phase Refrigerant Flow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooling elements for high-voltage batteries in vehicles fail to provide uniform cooling across multiple batteries, leading to temperature variations that can affect the range, service life, and power output of electric and hybrid vehicles.
Innovation Solution
A cooling element with a refrigerant inlet and distributor that ensures a uniform distribution of a two-phase refrigerant mixture to multiple parallel lines, maintaining a consistent mixing ratio and pressure loss, and using features like curved sections, sources of interference, and nozzles to homogenize the refrigerant and prevent phase separation, ensuring uniform cooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional cooling elements are used for multiple high-voltage batteries, then the cooling system can cover multiple batteries, but uniform cooling across all batteries cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling element is divided into multiple independent cooling circuits, each with its own distributor and parallel lines, allowing each circuit to independently cool individual batteries with uniform temperature distribution, thereby resolving the contradiction between covering multiple batteries and achieving uniform cooling
2Device complexity
If a single cooling element cools multiple high-voltage batteries, then the system structure is simplified, but temperature spread between batteries increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling element is segmented into multiple independent cooling circuits with separate distributors and parallel lines for each battery, enabling uniform temperature control across all batteries while maintaining a relatively compact integrated structure, thus balancing structural simplicity with temperature uniformity
3Ease of manufacture
If refrigerant is distributed to parallel lines without homogenization, then the system is simpler, but phase separation occurs leading to non-uniform cooling
Solution Approach 1:
A homogenization section is incorporated into the distributor design, where straight sections and curved sections with interference sources pre-mix the refrigerant before it reaches the parallel lines, ensuring uniform two-phase distribution to all cooling lines and eliminating phase separation issues
4Temperature
If curved sections with interference sources are added to homogenize refrigerant, then uniform cooling is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The homogenization function is built into the distributor structure itself through carefully designed curved sections with interference sources, performing refrigerant mixing in advance before distribution, thereby achieving uniform cooling without requiring separate external homogenization devices
Solution Approach 2:
The homogenization function is merged with the distribution function in a single integrated distributor component, combining multiple functions (homogenization, distribution, and flow control) into one element, reducing overall system complexity while achieving temperature uniformity
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 safe, reliable, and uniform cooling of high-voltage batteries, optimizing service life and energy storage and output by maintaining consistent temperature across battery modules, thus enhancing the performance of electric and hybrid vehicles.
Implementation Method 1
The refrigerant in the cooling element is present as a two-phase mixture. The distributor is designed in turn, according to the invention, to distribute the refrigerant uniformly between the lines.
Implementation Method 2
In the curved section, a liquid phase constituent is separated from a gaseous phase constituent since the latter is pressed against the radially outer inner wall of the main line by a centrifugal force which is present.
Implementation Method 3
the cooling element is designed to transmit heat from the object to the refrigerant
Data Source
AI summary
A cooling element is provided for at least one object, in particular for a high-voltage battery. The cooling element includes a coolant inlet, to which a refrigerant can be supplied and which is connected to a main line. The cooling element is designed to transfer heat from the object to the refrigerant. The cooling element further includes at least one distributor which distributes the refrigerant from the main line to a plurality of parallel lines, wherein the refrigerant is present in the cooling element as a two-phase mixture and the distributor is configured to distribute the refrigerant uniformly to the parallel lines.