Heating Performance Characteristics of High-Voltage PTC Heater for an Electric Vehicle

Myeong Hyeon Park and Sung Chul Kim
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Myeong Hyeon Park: School of Mechanical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongbuk 712-749, Korea
Sung Chul Kim: School of Mechanical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongbuk 712-749, Korea

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: High-voltage positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters have a high heating capacity and are fast acting; thus, they function as the actual main heating equipment in electric cars, and considerable research is devoted to improving their heating performance and efficiency. We evaluated the heating performance of a high-voltage PTC heater for an electric car by building a closed-loop-type test system including an air channel, environment chamber, DC power supply, and data acquisition system, and designed an initial prototype with general characteristics. Using this test system, we analyzed the heating performance characteristics of the heater as a function of changes in the blower airflow, ambient temperature, and battery voltage. We changed the geometrical variables of the heater and conducted an analysis to improve the heating performance and output density of the initial prototype. Based on the heating performance of the initial prototype and its geometrical variables, we designed an improved prototype and compared its heating performance and output density with that of the initial prototype. As a result, we achieved a heating capacity of 5.52 kW, a pressure drop of 48.2 Pa, and an efficiency of 98%, whereas the output density was 3.45 kW/kg, which is a 24% improvement over the initial prototype.

Keywords: performance characteristics; electric vehicle; PTC heater; heating capacity; efficiency; gravimetric power density (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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