US 7,000,685 B2Granted

Cooling system for vehicle

AssigneeDenso Corporation

InventorsYusuke Morishita, Yoshimitsu Inoue

Life of this patent

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Abstract

In a cooling system for cooling a heating element mounted in a vehicle, a radiator is located at a position higher than a heat sink, which absorbs heat from the heating element. When the amount of heat generated from the heating element, which is detected by a sensor, is greater than a predetermined first value, a blower is operated. Further, when the detected amount of heat is greater than a predetermined second value that is higher than the predetermined first value, a pump is operated. When the detected amount of heat is equal to or less than the predetermined first value, the pump is stopped and the cooling water is circulated by a principle of heat siphon. Accordingly, power consumption of the pump is reduced. Further, power consumption of the cooling system is reduced or an increase in power consumption of the cooling system is restricted.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A cooling system for cooling a heating element, the cooling system comprising:

a heat sink through which a cooling fluid passes to absorb heat from the heating element;
a radiator communicating with the heat sink through a cooling fluid circuit through which the cooling fluid flows, wherein the radiator radiates the heat of the cooling fluid and is located at a position higher than the heat sink;
a pump portion that is arranged between the heat sink and the radiator in the cooling fluid circuit and pumps the cooling fluid to circulate the cooling fluid through the cooling fluid circuit;
a bypass passage that is arranged in the cooling fluid circuit to bypass the pump portion, wherein when operation of the pump portion is stopped, the cooling fluid flows in the radiator through the bypass passage while bypassing the pump portion;
and
means for controlling the pump portion, wherein
the pump portion is stopped by the means for controlling the pump portion when an amount of heat generated from the heating element is equal to or less than a predetermined value, and the pump portion is operated by the means for controlling the pump portion when the amount of heat generated from the heating element is greater than the predetermined value.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/852,712Filed 24 May 2004
Priority: JP 2003-14795926 May 2003
Published: US 2004/0250995 A116 Dec 2004
Granted: 21 Feb 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

B60L 1/02
Supplying electric power to auxiliary equipment of vehicles: to electric heating circuits
B60K 11/02
Arrangement in connection with cooling of propulsion units: with liquid cooling
B60K 6/26
Characterised by apparatus, components or means specially adapted for HEVs: characterised by the motors or the generators
B60K 2001/003
Arrangement or mounting of electrical propulsion units: with means for cooling the electrical propulsion units