Reversible Heat Pump System for an Electrical Vehicle

The paper describes, in a first part, a conventional architecture of a heat pump system intended to both heat and cool the passenger compartment of an electrical vehicle. It indicates in particular the main disadvantages and performance limitations of such kind of systems. The second part describes an improved architecture of the system including an additional water/R134a refrigerant evaporator and integrated components allowing for an increase in heating capacity and an optimization of the volume required for their integration in the engine compartment. The paper concludes on the measured performances obtained for both heating and cooling mode and indicates the other possible advantages of the proposed system such as its ability to manage the driven batteries temperature.