Thermal management system, method of controlling same, and heater

A heater for a thermal management system for an electric vehicle, comprising:

• a heater housing having a heater inlet and a heater outlet;
• a plurality of heater modules contained in the heater housing, wherein each of the plurality of heater modules includes:
• a module housing having a module inlet and a module outlet;
• a module inlet header that is in fluid communication with the module inlet so as to receive a coolant from the module inlet;
• a module outlet header that is in fluid communication with the module outlet so as to transport the coolant to the module outlet;
• a plurality of module coolant conduits extending between the module inlet header and the outlet header, wherein there is a PCM storage space defined in the module housing between the module coolant conduits;
• a plurality of thermal conductors extending from the plurality of module coolant conduits into the PCM storage space;
• and
• a quantity of phase-change material in the PCM storage space and in contact with the plurality of thermal conductors;
• and
• at least one electric heating element, wherein the module housing of each of the plurality of heater modules has at least one of the at least one electric heating element positioned adjacent thereto for transmission of heat into the phase-change material.

A thermal management system for an electric vehicle, the electric vehicle including a traction motor, a traction motor battery, and a charger for use in charging the traction motor battery from an external charge source, the thermal management system comprising:

• a vehicle coolant conduit system that contains a coolant;
• a pump that is positioned to drive the coolant to flow through the vehicle coolant conduit to draw heat from the charger during operation of the charger;
• a heater that includes
• a heater housing having a heater inlet and a heater outlet, wherein the heater inlet and the heater outlet are fluidically connected to the vehicle coolant conduit system;
• a heater coolant conduit system that fluidically connects the heater inlet and the heater outlet;
• wherein there is a PCM storage space defined in the heater housing outside the heater coolant conduit system;
• a quantity of phase-change material in the PCM storage space, positioned to undergo heat exchange with the coolant in the heater coolant conduit system;
• and
• at least one electric heating element positioned to heat the phase-change material;
• and
• a controller programmed to operate the charger to charge the traction motor battery when the electric vehicle is connected to an external power source,
• wherein the controller is programmed to operate the pump to drive the coolant to flow through the vehicle coolant conduit to draw heat from the charger during operation of the charger, thereby heating the coolant,
• wherein, during operation of the charger, the controller is programmed to determine a temperature of the coolant, and to drive coolant flow through the heater in order to heat the phase-change material if the temperature of the coolant is higher than a selected threshold coolant temperature,
• and wherein, when the electric vehicle is connected to the external power source, the controller is programmed to operate the at least one electric heating element in order to heat the phase-change material at least some of the time.