Vehicle Front-End Slats With Air-Guiding Elements for Cooling Airflow
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing motor vehicle front-end sections face challenges in efficiently managing air flow to cooling modules, leading to suboptimal air resistance and cooling performance due to abrupt diversion of cooling air flows and inadequate adaptation to varying cooling demands.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of adjustable slat devices with air-guiding elements in the front-end section allows for smooth diversion of cooling air flows, reducing flow resistance and enabling optimal air resistance and cooling performance by pivoting slats between closed and open positions, with adjustable inclination angles and mounting configurations to accommodate different cooling demands.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If slats are made pivotable between closed and open positions without air-guiding elements, then the device complexity is reduced and ease of manufacture is improved, but the air resistance increases and cooling performance deteriorates due to abrupt flow diversion
Solution Approach 1:
Air-guiding elements are introduced as intermediary components at the ends of slats facing the cooling module. These elements smoothly guide the cooling air flow from the slat region toward the cooling module, preventing abrupt flow diversion. This mediator component reduces flow resistance and improves cooling performance while maintaining the simple pivotable slat structure.
2Productivity
If slats are kept in fully open position, then cooling performance is maximized, but air resistance increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The slats are designed to be dynamically adjustable between closed, partially open, and fully open positions. This dynamic configuration allows the system to adapt to varying cooling demands, opening fully when maximum cooling is needed and closing when air resistance must be minimized, thereby optimizing the trade-off between cooling performance and aerodynamic drag.
Solution Approach 2:
The opening angle of the slats is varied as a controllable parameter to optimize performance. By adjusting the slat angle according to cooling demand, the system can achieve the best possible air resistance (cw value) dependent on the cooling requirement, rather than being fixed in a single position.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If slats are made with air-guiding elements for smooth flow diversion, then air resistance is reduced and cooling performance improves, but device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The slat structure is segmented into distinct functional parts: the main slat body for blocking/allowing flow and the air-guiding elements at the ends for flow direction control. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and manufactured separately, then assembled together, reducing overall manufacturing complexity while achieving smooth flow diversion.
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 enhances aerodynamic shaping, reduces air resistance, and ensures efficient cooling by smoothly diverting cooling air flows, achieving optimal air resistance and cooling performance across various demand conditions.
Implementation Method 1
the cooling air volume flow is diverted (smoothly) in the direction of the cooling module by the air-guiding element
Implementation Method 2
slats which are arranged adjacent to one another and which are each pivotable about a pivot axis between a closed slat position and an open slat position
Data Source
AI summary
A front-end section for a motor vehicle, having at least one air inlet opening for supplying a cooling air volume flow to a cooling module arranged behind the air inlet opening. In the air inlet opening, there is arranged in each case one slat device with multiple adjustable slats which are arranged adjacent to one another and which are each pivotable about a pivot axis between a closed slat position and an open slat position. The slats each have, at their end facing toward the cooling module, an air-guiding element which is configured such that, in an at least partially open slat position, the cooling air volume flow is diverted in the direction of the cooling module by the air-guiding element.