Electric Powertrain Thermal Circuit for Mixed Heating and Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current thermal management systems for electric powertrains cannot independently manage the conflicting thermal needs of electric motors, inverters, and speed reducers, leading to suboptimal efficiency as they either cool or heat all subsystems simultaneously, benefiting some components while penalizing others.
Innovation Solution
A single thermal management system using a single carrier fluid, such as dielectric oil, with independent branches and adjustment devices to separately manage heating and cooling of electric motors, inverters, speed reducers, and energy sources, allowing for multiple operating modes to optimize temperature control based on component-specific needs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single thermal management system uses a single carrier fluid to separately manage heating and cooling of different subsystems, then the efficiency and performance of each component is optimized, but the device complexity increases due to the need for multiple independent branches and adjustment devices
Solution Approach 1:
The thermal management system is divided into multiple independent branches, with each branch dedicated to a specific subsystem (electric motor, inverter, speed reducer, energy source). This segmentation allows each component to be managed independently with its own temperature control, optimizing the efficiency of each component while maintaining a unified system architecture using a single carrier fluid.
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 approach optimizes the performance of the electric powertrain by allowing simultaneous and independent cooling of electric motors and inverters while heating the speed reducer, thereby enhancing efficiency, duration, and effectiveness of heating, thus addressing the conflicting thermal requirements of the components.
Implementation Method 1
a single circuit crossed by a single carrier fluid, for example, dielectric oil
Implementation Method 2
the thermal management system is able to separately manage the heating and cooling of the subsystems
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to an innovative thermal management system for an electric powertrain of an electric vehicle by providing heating and cooling of the different subsystems independently but using a single circuit and a single carrier fluid. Furthermore, this system can interact with the entire air conditioning system of the electric vehicle. The thermal management system, by means of a single circuit crossed by a single carrier fluid, is separately enslaved to an electric motor, an inverter, a speed reducer and a source of energy (battery, fuel cell device and similar) with appropriate adjustment devices. Advantageously, the thermal management system can operate according to multiple operating modes that implement different heating/cooling strategies. The use of the present invention, allows the performance of the electric powertrain to be optimized in terms of efficiency, duration and effectiveness of the heating.