Numerical study on flow and heat transfer performance of serpentine parallel flow channels in a high voltage heater system

Abstract

In this study, a high-voltage heater system with a size of 310 mm ? 210 mm ? 60 mm has been numerically studied and experimentally verified to explore the influence of the cavity structure on the flow and heat transfer performance. the response surface model and analysis of variance are used to determine the influence of the length of the mainstream area of the inlet (Lin), the length of the mainstream area of the outlet (Lout), the length of the parallel flow channel (Lch) and the single channel width (W) on the flow heat transfer, and ultimately find the best structural plan. The results show that the structural parameters of the parallel flow channel are significantly more important than those of the mainstream area, with the width and length of the parallel single channel being the primary and secondary structural parameters, respectively. The optimization scheme obtained by the NGSA-II algorithm can simultaneously meet the requirements of heat transfer and flow uniformity. Specifically, compared with the original model, the flow distribution uniformity coefficient (S) and the inlet/outlet pressure drop (Ptotal) decreased by 53.49 and 19.52%, respectively, while the average heat transfer coefficient increased by 28.05%.

Model Characterization of High-Voltage Layer Heater for Electric Vehicles through Electro–Thermo–Fluidic Simulations

“…Previous research on the commercialization of HVLH [7,8] along with computer-aided engineering (CAE) investigations on the performance and design of products [9][10][11][12] have focused mainly on the advancement of the heater system itself. On the other hand, block diagram modeling approaches have been used to develop and implement HVLH control strategies at the system level, particularly when incorporated into EV or PHEV HVAC modules [13][14][15][16].…”

“…The discretization of the computational domains resulted in a total of 32,010,895 3D elements, with 24,856,397 elements in the fluid domain and 7,154,498 in the solid domain, along with 24,704 layered shell elements designated for thin films. Earlier research has shown that around 2.5 million elements are required to achieve precise and convergent results in CFD and CHT studies of comparable heaters [9][10][11][12]. Consequently, the number of elements used in this study is considered adequate for reliable results.…”

“…The design of pin fin structures, which facilitate heat exchange close to the coolant inlet to regulate the temperature of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)-an essential electronic component in controlling HVLH-has been optimized by employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) integrated with heat transfer analysis [9]. In addition, recent findings have been published on the enhancement of parallel serpentine flow channels, achieved through simulations of steady-state flow and heat transfer [10]. Earlier studies by the author presented HVLH designs based on numerical analysis for the flow path geometry of HVLH and the optimization of the power distribution to achieve a more uniform temperature distribution [11,12].…”

“…Earlier studies by the author presented HVLH designs based on numerical analysis for the flow path geometry of HVLH and the optimization of the power distribution to achieve a more uniform temperature distribution [11,12]. The study in [11] introduced a design for symmetric serpentine flow channels aimed at addressing the challenges associated with machining bolt fastenings in previous serpentine channel designs referenced in [9,10]. Moreover, the combined study of steady-state flow and heat transfer revealed that despite increased pressure drop, the symmetric type channel maintained better temperature uniformity compared to the parallel type [12].…”