Design Optimization and Thermal Simulation of a Plate Type Heat Exchanger (“Chiller”) for EVs Applications

The rapid evolution of electric vehicles (EVs) has considerably forced the automotive industry to design compact and highly efficient heat exchangers due to low-temperature applications. The plate type heat exchanger (Also known as “Chiller” in automotive industry) is one of the most important components in EVs thermal management systems. It is a type of heat exchanger, which uses metallic plates arranged like a staggered sandwiched structure and brazed together to exchange heat between two working fluids. The heat transfer between the plates occurs due to highly compact structural design as compare to any conventional heat exchangers. The chiller is having very large surface area, which is exposed to the working fluids as the distribution happens all across the plates. The chillers are more suitable design for transferring heat between ranges of working fluids pressure varying from low to high. Various types of welded, semi-welded plate heat exchangers are available in the market.

This paper describes the design optimization and thermal simulation of a plate type heat exchanger, which is compact and highly efficient in terms of heat transfer and packaging. The design is based on the thermal mapping of the working fluids, which are coolant (50:50 ethylene glycol and water mixture) and refrigerant R134a and effective heat transfer between them. The current study analyses the design, which is suitable for EVs applications. The unconventional approach has led to a design, which is having staggered corrugated plates sandwiched between each other to increase maximum heat transfer area. The current design is having very high performance to size ratio as compare to the industry available chillers.