Vehicle HVAC Guide Structure for Two-Layer Airflow Collisions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional two-layer air conditioners for vehicles face challenges in maintaining air volume and temperature uniformity due to air passage collisions and restricted package size, leading to decreased air volume and excessive temperature differences.
Innovation Solution
The air conditioner features a guide unit with a cold air guide and a warm air guide that redirect air flows to prevent collisions and enhance mixing, optimizing the air passage structure to improve air volume and temperature control by directing cold and warm air towards specific vents, thereby reducing resistance and temperature disparities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If air passages are optimized for two-layer air flow, then defrosting performance and heating performance are improved, but air volume decreases due to passage collisions and restricted package size
Solution Approach 1:
The air conditioning case is divided into an upper passage and a lower passage by a partition wall, with separate air flow paths for cold air and warm air. This segmentation allows independent optimization of each passage to prevent collisions and maintain high air volume while achieving effective defrosting and heating performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes vertical space by creating upper and lower passages in the air conditioning case, effectively using the third dimension (height) to separate air flows. This dimensional approach allows both defrosting and heating functions to operate simultaneously without air passage collisions, maintaining high air volume within restricted package constraints.
2Volume of moving object
If package size is restricted, then vehicle installation space is optimized, but temperature uniformity deteriorates due to excessive temperature differences
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different thermal characteristics to different regions by separately controlling cold air flow in the upper passage and warm air flow in the lower passage. This local quality approach ensures that each region receives appropriate temperature characteristics, achieving temperature uniformity throughout the vehicle interior while maintaining a compact package size.
3Productivity
If guide units are added to redirect air flows, then air volume and temperature uniformity are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide units for cold air and warm air are merged into a single integrated structure that redirects both air flows simultaneously. This merging approach improves air volume and temperature uniformity while minimizing the increase in device complexity by combining multiple functions into one component.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide units act as intermediary elements between the heat exchangers and the air outlets, redirecting air flows to optimize distribution. These intermediaries improve air volume and temperature uniformity without requiring fundamental changes to the overall system architecture, thus limiting the increase in 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
This configuration increases air volume, enhances manufacturability and assemblability, and improves temperature uniformity by concentrating cold and warm air flows, resulting in better dynamic stiffness and temperature evaluation performance.
Implementation Method 1
an evaporator 2 and a heater core 3 mounted inside the air conditioning case 10
Implementation Method 2
an evaporator 2 and a heater core 3 mounted inside the air conditioning case 10
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is an air conditioner for a vehicle, the air conditioner having an improved guide structure capable of increasing an air volume by preventing a collision between air flowing through an upper passage and air flowing through a lower passage. The air conditioner for a vehicle comprises: an air conditioning case having an air passage formed therein and an air outlet which includes a defrost vent and a face vent; and a heat exchanger for cooling and a heat exchanger for heating, which are provided in the air passage of the air conditioning case. The air conditioner for the vehicle further comprises: a temperature door arranged between the heat exchanger for cooling and the heat exchanger for heating in order to adjust the degree to which cold air, which has passed through the heat exchanger for cooling, is heated by the heat exchanger for heating; a cold air passage through which cold air that has passed through the heat exchanger for cooling bypasses the heat exchanger for heating; a warm air passage through which cold air that has passed through the heat exchanger for cooling passes through the heat exchanger for heating; a cold air guide unit for guiding the cold air downstream of the heat exchanger for cooling; and a warm air guide unit for guiding the warm air downstream of the heat exchanger for heating.