An innovative solution to a passenger car cabin cooling

A concept study

AMITH VISHWANATH, AKSHAY V RAO, NAGARJUNA N, ANAND RAVI

7th SEM TCE, BNMIT, Bangalore

Motivation• Discomfort in handling hot

car parts while handling• Vehicle battery begins to

degrade• The inside of the vehicle will

not be safe to sit in until it is cooled down by outside air or air conditioning, which will slowdown the vehicle

• Car cabin electronics could be affected

• Food or drink in the car loses its freshness

• Plastic water bottles in the vehicle will be heated up and release dangerous chemicals to the stored water

A conventional solution• A hot cabin can be cooled by convection• Generally, a driver tends to open all windows of the

car for some time after moving the car. During this movement, fresh air comes in to expel the hot air trapped

• This concept is simple. It can be made into a simple mechanism by adding few vent fans which continue to be operational when the car is parked and all windows closed.

• We can modify the car cabin air cooling system to keep car fans running when the car is parked. This option might look simple, but drains off the car battery soon and might result in starting problem if battery drains too much.

• Radiated heat ?? • Car refrigeration system is a solution which required

engines to be ON when parked!!! operational.• Green energy, economy and innovation???

How a car cooling system works

• Heat pump• Condenser• Compressor• Expansion valve • Thermodynamics• Blower • Thermal insulation…..….….

Lets look differently as electronics students

Thermo-electric cooling devices• Thermoelectric coolers (TECs), also known as Peltier

coolers, are solid-state heat pumps that utilize the Peltier effect to cool• Passing a current though a TEC transfers heat from

one side to the other.• TECs are constructed using two dissimilar semi-

conductors, one n-type and the other p-type. The two semiconductors are positioned thermally in parallel and joined at one end by a conducting cooling plate • The flow of DC current across the junction of the two

semi-conductors creates a temperature difference. As a result of the temperature difference, Peltier cooling causes heat to be absorbed from the vicinity of the cooling plate, and to move to the other end of the device• Bismuth telluride and their nano structures,

magnesium group 4 compounds etc are used as TEC devices

Advantages of solid state refrigeration• No moving parts and hence

little or no maintenance. • No refrigerants, such as

potentially harmful CFCs.• Enables reduced low-noise

operation of cooling fans, while providing greater cooling power.• Suitable for manufacture in

mass. • Lightweight.• Easy to control by voltage /

current• Quick response.

Implementation in car

Green energy solution

Conclusion & way ahead• A proof of concept study has been made on building

TEC system • The car cabin is getting heated due to the solar

energy. Usage of the solar energy itself to cool the cabin would be a innovative solution. There are two possible ways of implementing the same. Solar films on cars is not a technology challenge • Usage of solar power to obtain electrical energy and

using this energy to run a air conditioning system is well within the reach of current technology .• Use solar energy to produce a cooling effect directly:

This requires extensive work in the field of micro fluidics

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• Perrot, Pierre (1998). A to Z of Thermodynamics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-856552-6. OCLC 123283342 38073404.

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• Hidrovo, C Goodson KE, 2008, “Active microfludic cooling of itergared circuits, in electrical, optical, thermal interconnections for 3D integrated systems” , J. Meindl and M Bakir, eds, Artech, Boston, PP 293-330