Stacked Plate Heat Exchanger With Bypass Expansion for Low Pressure Drop
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing air conditioning systems for vehicles face issues with pressure drop and reduced cooling performance due to complex coolant flow and limited pipe length, leading to decreased coefficient of performance (COP) and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A heat exchanger with a stacked plate structure and counter-flowing first and second flow paths, incorporating a sub-expansion part with an orifice to bypass and expand high temperature coolant, allowing efficient heat exchange with low temperature gas coolant, thereby improving sub-cooling and cooling performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the heat exchanger uses a dual pipe structure to supercool the coolant condensed by the condenser, then the cooling performance is improved, but the coolant flow becomes complex causing pressure drop inside inlet and outlet pipes of the condenser
Solution Approach 1:
The heat exchanger is divided into multiple flow paths including a first flow path for high temperature high pressure liquid coolant, a second flow path for low temperature low pressure gas coolant, and a third flow path for bypassing and expanding part of the coolant. This segmentation allows separate handling of different coolant streams, improving heat exchange efficiency while maintaining simpler flow patterns in each individual path to reduce pressure drop.
2Length of moving object
If the pipe length is limited due to narrow engine room space, then the installation is feasible, but the minimum required length for reducing coolant temperature to required temperature is not satisfied, decreasing COP
Solution Approach 1:
The heat exchanger transitions from a linear pipe-based heat exchange approach to a three-dimensional stacked plate structure. Multiple plates are arranged in layers with flow paths between them, enabling heat exchange to occur simultaneously across multiple surfaces and levels. This dimensional transformation dramatically increases the effective heat exchange surface area within a compact volume, allowing sufficient temperature reduction of the coolant without requiring long pipe lengths, thereby maintaining high COP despite space constraints.
3Productivity
If the heat exchanger uses a stacked plate structure with multiple flow paths, then the heat exchange efficiency is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple functional components are merged into a single integrated stacked plate heat exchanger unit. The first flow path, second flow path, third flow path with orifice, and heat exchange surfaces are all combined in one compact structure. This merging achieves high heat exchange efficiency through increased surface area and optimized flow patterns while actually reducing overall system complexity by eliminating the need for separate heat exchange components and extensive piping that would be required in a traditional multi-component system.
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
Enhances cooling performance by effectively reducing coolant temperature and improving COP, leading to improved fuel efficiency and simplified pipe layout, while preventing NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness) issues.
Implementation Method 1
an orifice configured to expand a working fluid flowing into the third flow path
Implementation Method 2
a heat exchanging part being configured to mutually heat-exchange working fluids passing through the first and second flow paths, respectively
Implementation Method 3
an evaporator cooling air blown inside a vehicle in which the air conditioning system is installed, by using evaporative latent heat of the coolant while evaporating the coolant
Data Source
AI summary
A heat exchanger may include a heat radiating part, in which a plurality of plates is stacked and a plurality of first flow paths and a plurality of second flow paths disposed while crossing each other are formed inside the plurality of plates, the heat exchanging part being configured to mutually heat-exchange working fluids passing through the first and second flow paths, respectively, and a sub-expansion part integrally formed with an inner side of the heat radiating part, connected with the second flow path, and configured to bypass a part of one working fluid among the working fluids flowing into the heat radiating part and heat-exchange the bypassed working fluid with the working fluid passing through the first flow path.