The influence of the non-uniform airflow on the energy and cooling performance of the simplified electric vehicle front end cooling module

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are viable alternatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil energy resources. The front end cooling module (FECM), including the heat exchanger (HX), cooling fan, grille and other components, is indispensable for EVs. As the cooling airflow demand of EVs is smaller than that of traditional vehicles, the grille becomes flat and small so as to reduce the wind drag and improve the driving range, which causes more non-uniform airflow in the FECM. However, the influence of this change on the cooling fan has not been deeply researched so far.Thus, a simplified FECM model in this paper is designed to explore the influence of non-uniform airflow caused by different grilles. This study uses the computational fluid simulation (CFD) to get the numerical results and the airflow distribution inside the FECM, aiming to minimize the negative impact of the non-uniform airflow on the cooling fan and to reduce the power consumption, which has not been discussed by researches before. The results show that the target power consumption can be reduced by 5–18% through optimizing the grille, meanwhile meeting the mass flow rate required for cooling, which provides a reference for designers to refine parameters such as the grille size, and is beneficial for the energy saving and mileage improvement of EVs.