Cooling Performance Characteristics on Mobile Air-Conditioning System for Hybrid Electric Vehicles

This study investigates the cooling performance characteristics of the mobile air-conditioning system using R744 (CO2) for the hybrid electric vehicle as an alternative to both the R-134a and the conventional air-conditioning system. The developed air-conditioning system is operated with an electric driven compressor in the battery driving mode and a belt driven compressor in the engine driving mode. The cooling performance characteristics of the developed system have been analyzed by experiments under various operating conditions of inlet air temperature, air flow rates for the gas cooler side and evaporator side, and electric compressor revolution respectively. As a result, cooling performances of the tested air-conditioning system for the EDC driving mode (electricity driven compressor) were better than those for the BDC driving mode (belt driven compressor). The cooling capacity and cooling COP of the tested air-conditioning system for both driving modes were over 5.0 kW and 2.0, respectively. The observed cooling performance of the tested air-conditioning system may be sufficient for the cabin cooling of hybrid electric vehicles.