Six-way valve and vehicle thermal management system having the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020171914-A1
Application number	US-201916601988-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 15, 2019
Priority date	Dec 3, 2018
Publication date	Jun 4, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A vehicle thermal management system for significantly improving thermal management performance includes a first group including a battery, a second group including one or more power electronics (PE) components, a plurality of cooling lines in thermal communication with an air-cooled radiator, and a six-way valve. The six-way valve includes a housing having a plurality of inlets and a plurality of outlets, a valve member mounted to be rotatable in the housing, and an actuator driving the valve member. The housing has a plurality of passages allowing the plurality of inlets to selectively communicate with the plurality of outlets by rotation of the valve member. In addition, the plurality of passages include a plurality of inner passages formed in an interior space of the housing, and a plurality of outer passages formed in an exterior space of the housing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A six-way valve, comprising:
a housing having a plurality of inlets and a plurality of outlets; a valve member mounted to be rotatable in the housing; and an actuator driving the valve member, wherein the housing has a plurality of passages allowing the plurality of inlets to selectively communicate with the plurality of outlets by rotation of the valve member, and the plurality of passages include a plurality of inner passages formed in an interior space of the housing, and a plurality of outer passages formed in an exterior space of the housing.

2 . The six-way valve according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of inner passages are disposed around a periphery of the valve member.

3 . The six-way valve according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of outer passages are individually disposed in the exterior space of the housing by a plurality of exterior members.

4 . The six-way valve according to claim 1 , wherein the valve member has a pair of opening grooves selectively opening the plurality of inner passages, and a pair of closing projections selectively closing the plurality of inner passages.

5 . The six-way valve according to claim 4 , wherein the pair of opening grooves and the pair of closing projections are formed on a lateral edge of the valve member,
the pair of opening grooves are disposed opposite each other, the pair of closing projections are disposed opposite each other, and the pair of opening grooves are disposed to be perpendicular to the pair of closing projections.

6 . The six-way valve according to claim 5 , wherein the valve member has one or more through holes selectively opening and closing the plurality of outer passages.

7 . A vehicle thermal management system including the six-way valve according to claim 1 , the vehicle thermal management system comprising:
a plurality of cooling lines in thermal communication with a first group including a battery, a second group including one or more power electronics (PE) components, and an air-cooled radiator; and the six-way valve connected to the plurality of cooling lines to switch a flow of a coolant.

8 . The vehicle thermal management system according to claim 7 , wherein the plurality of the cooling lines include a first cooling line in thermal communication with the first group, a second cooling line in thermal communication with the second group, and a third cooling line in thermal communication with the air-cooled radiator.

9 . The vehicle thermal management system according to claim 7 , wherein the six-way valve includes a first inlet connected to an outlet of the first group, a first outlet connected to an inlet of the first group, a second inlet connected to an outlet of the second group, a second outlet connected to an inlet of the second group, a third inlet connected to an outlet of the air-cooled radiator, and a third outlet connected to an inlet of the air-cooled radiator.

10 . The vehicle thermal management system according to claim 7 , wherein the first group further includes a battery chiller, and
the battery chiller is thermally connected to a refrigerant loop of a vehicle air conditioning system.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp

Inventors

• Han Jong Wan
• Kim Joo Yeon
• Jeong Yeon Man

Classifications

• B60H1/00485

  Valves for air-conditioning devices, e.g. thermostatic valves · CPC title

• B60H2001/00307

  Component temperature regulation using a liquid flow · CPC title

• B60H1/00385

  for vehicles having an electrical drive, e.g. hybrid or fuel cell · CPC title

• B60H1/00885 Primary

  Controlling the flow of heating or cooling liquid, e.g. valves or pumps (B60H1/00899 takes precedence; constructions of valves B60H1/00485) · CPC title

• F16K11/00

  Multiple-way valves, e.g. mixing valves; Pipe fittings incorporating such valves · CPC title