Vehicle cabin comfort management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11807074-B2
Application number	US-202117555915-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2021
Priority date	Dec 20, 2021
Publication date	Nov 7, 2023
Grant date	Nov 7, 2023

Abstract

A thermal management system for a vehicle includes a plurality of fluid flow circuits including a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) circuit circulating a flow of refrigerant therethrough and including an evaporator, a chiller heat exchanger, a first expansion valve located upstream of the evaporator, a second expansion valve located upstream of the chiller heat exchanger, and a heat exchanger located fluidly upstream of the expansion valves. A propulsion cooling circuit circulates a flow of coolant therethrough which is utilized to condition one or more propulsion components of the vehicle. The flow of coolant is directed through the heat exchanger, thus subcooling the flow of refrigerant. A controller is operably connected to one or more control points of the thermal management system and is configured to adjust the one or more control points to achieve a target amount of subcooling of the flow of refrigerant at the heat exchanger.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermal management system for a vehicle, comprising:
a plurality of fluid flow circuits including:
a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) circuit circulating a flow of refrigerant therethrough, the HVAC circuit including:
an evaporator;
a chiller heat exchanger arranged in a parallel relationship with the evaporator;
a first expansion valve disposed upstream of the evaporator;
a second expansion valve disposed upstream of the chiller heat exchanger; and
a propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger disposed fluidly upstream of the first expansion valve and the second expansion valve; and

a propulsion cooling circuit circulating a flow of coolant therethrough, the flow of coolant utilized to condition one or more propulsion components of the vehicle, the flow of coolant directed through the propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger to exchange thermal energy with the flow of refrigerant, thus subcooling the flow of refrigerant; and

a controller operably connected to one or more control points of the thermal management system, the controller configured to adjust the one or more control points to achieve a target amount of subcooling of the flow of refrigerant at the propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger.

2. The thermal management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more control points include a coolant heater of the propulsion cooling circuit, a propulsion conditioning circuit pump, or a compressor of the HVAC circuit.

3. The thermal management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more propulsion system components includes a rechargeable energy storage system.

4. The thermal management system of claim 1 , further comprising an additional component cooling circuit circulating a flow of drive component coolant therethrough to provide cooling of one of more additional components of the vehicle, the additional component cooling circuit operably connected to the propulsion cooling circuit at an additional component cooling circuit heat exchanger.

5. The thermal management system of claim 4 , further comprising an additional component cooling circuit pump to urge the flow of drive component coolant along the additional component cooling circuit.

6. The thermal management system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more control points includes the additional component cooling circuit pump.

7. The thermal management system of claim 4 , further comprising a radiator disposed along the additional component cooling circuit.

8. The thermal management system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more control points include a flow rate of components coolant through the low temperature radiator.

9. A method of operating a thermal management system, including:
providing a plurality of fluid flow circuits including:
a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) circuit circulating a flow of refrigerant therethrough; and
a propulsion cooling circuit circulating a flow of coolant therethrough, the propulsion cooling circuit fluidly connected to the HVAC circuit at a propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger;

selecting an amount of subcooling of the flow of refrigerant to be provided to one or more expansion valves disposed fluidly downstream propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger;
determining a target coolant temperature and a target coolant flow rate into the propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger to reach the selected amount of subcooling;
adjusting one or more control points of the thermal management system to achieve the target coolant temperature and the target coolant flow rate.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the target coolant temperature is selected utilizing a saturation temperature of the flow of refrigerant and an HVAC circuit load.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the target coolant flow rate is selected utilizing the saturation temperature of the flow of refrigerant, the HVAC circuit load and a temperature of the flow of coolant.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising adjusting one or more of the target coolant temperature or the target coolant flow rate based on an amount heat rejection in the flow of coolant at a chiller of the thermal management system fluidly upstream of the propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more control points include a coolant heater of the propulsion cooling circuit, a propulsion conditioning circuit pump, or a compressor of the HVAC circuit.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the flow of coolant is utilized to condition one or more propulsion components of a vehicle.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the thermal management system includes an additional component cooling circuit circulating a flow of component coolant therethrough to provide cooling of one of more additional components of the vehicle, the additional component cooling circuit operably connected to the propulsion cooling circuit at an additional component cooling circuit heat exchanger.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising urging the flow of component coolant along the additional component cooling circuit via a additional component cooling circuit pump.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the one or more control points includes the additional component cooling circuit pump.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising a radiator disposed along the additional component cooling circuit.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the one or more control points include a flow rate of component coolant through the radiator.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions to cause a controller to perform a method of operating a thermal management system, the method including:
providing a plurality of fluid flow circuits including:
a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) circuit circulating a flow of refrigerant therethrough; and
a propulsion cooling circuit circulating a flow of coolant therethrough, the propulsion cooling circuit fluidly connected to the HVAC circuit at a propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger;

selecting an amount of subcooling of the flow of refrigerant to be provided to one or more expansion valves disposed fluidly downstream propulsion cooling circuit heat exchanger;
determining a target coolant temperature and a target coolant flow rate into the heat exchanger to reach the selected amount of subcooling;
adjusting one or more control points of the thermal management system to achieve the target coolant temperature and the target coolant flow rate.

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Carlson Michael H
• Holihan Kyle
• Smith Cameron Paul
• Donatelli Anthony James
• Ziehr Lawrence P

Classifications

• B60H1/3204 Primary

  using compression (B60H1/3233 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60H1/3205

  Control means therefor · CPC title

• B60H1/00007 Primary

  Combined heating, ventilating, or cooling devices (control systems or mechanisms B60H1/00642) · CPC title

• B60H1/00278 Primary

  for the battery · CPC title

• B60H1/00321

  Heat exchangers for air-conditioning devices (B60H1/3227 takes precedence) · CPC title