Signal-to-noise research on comprehensive performance of plate heat exchanger for commercial electric vehicle

As a key component in the cooling systems of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and electric vehicle (EV), plate heat exchangers (PHEs) have been widely employed to transfer heat for battery management systems (BMSs). Due to its unique structural characteristics and function in BMS, it is essential to conduct signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) research on its structural variables and investigate their effects on performance. For that purpose, a PHE from a commercial vehicle made by one of the biggest Chinese manufacturers was employed as a research object. As a start, according to the periodicity of its flow channels, a simplified model of the elementary unit between plates was established for simulation. A grid independence test was carried out on that model and boosted the accuracy of numerical simulation. Next, the accuracy of the simulation method was verified by the comparison between the experimental and the simulation data. After that, Plate thickness, Chevron angle, Corrugated pitch, Minimum plate spacing, Plate height, and Peak width were taken as parameters and categorized into 25 combinations of an orthogonal array (OA) of L25 (56) with corresponding numerical analyses. Finally, the dimensionless JF factor was introduced to examine the effects of those structural variables on the comprehensive performance of the plate for further SNR and contribution rate (CR) research. It is found that the influence of structural parameters on the comprehensive performance of the PHE is quite different. Chevron angle has the strongest influence on the comprehensive performance with the CR of 34.81% and is followed by plate height owning the CR of 25.23%. Corrugated pitch, peak width, and plate thickness might bring mild changes to the comprehensive performance with respective 13.71%, 11.70%, and 8.21%. The least CR, 6.34%, is from Plate spacing.

Automated summary

This study used a plate heat exchanger from a commercial vehicle made by one of the biggest Chinese manufacturers as the research object. By establishing a simplified model, conducting grid independence tests, and analyzing 25 structural parameter combinations, it was found that the Chevron angle has the strongest influence on the comprehensive performance.