Two zone radiator cooling system
AssigneeVolvo Car Corporation
InventorHans Erik Olsen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention is to utilize one radiator instead of two to cool two separate vehicle cooling systems. The main embodiment is a single radiator cooling system that partitions the physical radiator into two separate surface areas that are dedicated for each of the two respective circuits. A processor can control an actuator that drives a screw and plunger mechanism to push and pull a plunger. The plunger separates the two surface areas so as the plunger is moved, a corresponding surface area is increased or decreased for a cooling circuit. An increase in the surface area can provide more cooling for that circuit as the fluid has more core area to travel through. Temperature sensors can provide data to a processor that can adjust the actuator to provide cooling relief to the circuit where its most required.
Claims20
A system for controlling two separate cooling systems with one radiator, comprising:
- a cooling circuit (system) with a 3-way valve and a temperature sensor connected to a radiator;
- a second and separate cooling circuit (system) also connected to the same radiator;
- a single radiator wherein it has been partitioned into two separate independent surface areas dedicated to each respective circuit;
- a single radiator that can cool two separate cooling circuits by, acquiring the temperature of a circuit, manipulating a flow valve in a circuit to control coolant flow into a radiator, and
- manipulating a set of screws connected to a set of plungers, that can control radiator surface area for each circuit to cool that circuit.
A method for controlling two separate cooling systems with one radiator, comprising:
- acquiring the temperature for a circuit using the sensors on each circuit;
- controlling the actuator to drive the screw and plunger mechanism to increase or decrease radiator surface area for each circuit;
- and
- recirculating the fluid through the circuit and each radiator partition area to cool the fluid.
A system for controlling two separate cooling systems with one radiator, comprising:
- a cooling circuit (system) with a 3-way valve and a temperature sensor connected to a radiator;
- a second cooling circuit (system) connected to the same radiator as cooling circuit 1, and a single radiator wherein it has been partitioned into two separate independent surface areas dedicated to each respective circuit, and a cooling system for two separate circuits that can cool two separate cooling circuits by, acquiring the temperature of a circuit, manipulating a flow valve in a circuit to control flow into a radiator, and manipulating a set of screws connected to a set of plungers that can control radiator surface area for each circuit to cool that circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.