Abstract
As the market for electric vehicles grows at a remarkable rate, various models of electric vehicles are currently in development, in parallel to the commercialization of components for diverse types of power supply. Cabin heating and heat management components are essential to electric vehicles. Any design for such components must consider the requirements for heating capacity and power density, which need to reflect both the power source and weight reduction demand of any electric vehicle. In particular, design developments in electric heaters have predominantly focused on experimental values because of structural characteristics of the heater and the variability of heat sources, requiring considerable cost and duration. To meet the ever-changing demands of the market, an improved design process for more efficient models is essential. To improve the efficacy of the design process for electric heaters, this study conducted a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of an electric heater with specific dimensions by changing design parameters and operating conditions of key components. The CFD analysis modeled heat characteristics through the application of user-defined functions (UDFs) to reflect temperature properties of Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) elements, which heat an electric heater. Three analysis models, which included fin as well as PTC elements and applied different spaces between the heat rods, were compared in terms of heating performance. In addition, the heat performance and heat output density of each analysis model was analyzed according to the variation of air flow at the inlet of the radiation section of an electric heater. Model B was selected, and a prototype was fabricated based on the model. The performance of the prototype was evaluated, and the correlation between the analysis results and the experimental ones was identified. The error rate between performance change rates was approximately 4%, which indicated that the reliability between the design model and the prototype was attained. Consequently, the design range of effective performance and the guideline for lightweight design could be presented based on the simulation of electric heaters for various electric vehicles. The fabrication of prototypes and minimum comparison demonstrated opportunities to reduce both development cost and duration.
Highlights
Issues such as energy shortages and environmental pollution are currently being addressed across all industries
One obstacle to the spread of electric vehicles is the reduction of electric vehicle mileage by almost 50% due to the operation of cabin heating system [6]
On the basis of this analysis, a prototype of the electric heater wasbased fabricated based on the which analysis model which tested the electric heater was fabricated on the analysis model tested performance
Summary
Issues such as energy shortages and environmental pollution are currently being addressed across all industries. The automobile industry accounts for over 10% of both global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Such a contribution cannot be neglected [1]. Business Council for Sustainable Development, the number of passenger cars in the world will reach about 2 billion by 2050 [2]. The replacement of the existing combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs) is one of the solutions to the above problem [3,4,5]. One obstacle to the spread of electric vehicles is the reduction of electric vehicle mileage by almost 50% due to the operation of cabin heating system [6]
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