Conventional and enhanced exergy analyses of a parallel integrated thermal management system for pure electric vehicles

Abstract

To improve the efficiency of the integrated thermal management system (ITMS) of pure electric vehicles, an enhanced exergetic analysis method was proposed. According to enhanced exergetic analysis, the exergy destruction distribution of main components of ITMS was detected in-depth. The results indicate that the exergy destruction within the evaporator entirely belonged to the endogenous part, and the exergy destruction of the condenser is mainly caused by the condenser itself; its endogenous exergy destruction (78.8%) is greater than the exogenous exergy destruction (21.2%). Meanwhile, the enhanced exergetic analysis suggested that the avoidable exergy destruction of the system accounts for about 68.7% of the total exergy destruction of the system; the potential for improvement of the system is huge. The interaction among the components is not strong, due to the 72.38% of exergy destruction in the system is endogenous. The highlights of the paper are: 1) thermodynamic modelling of the parallel ITMS is carried out; 2) enhanced exergetic analysis is applied to ITMS of pure electric vehicles; 3) avoidable exergy destruction is obtained, which represents the potential for system improvement; 4) the improvement priority for system components is acquired.