Internal-combustion engines – Cooling – Automatic coolant flow control
Patent
1984-04-05
1985-12-10
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
Internal-combustion engines
Cooling
Automatic coolant flow control
123 4144, F01P 714
Patent
active
045572232
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a cooling device for an internal combustion engine, and relates more particularly to a cooling device of this type whose components are controlled by a hierarchical automatic control.
Present automobile vehicles are frequently provided with an internal combustion engine cooled by a device which essentially comprises a cooling fluid circuit, using water in the majority of cases, which is closed and disposed in an internal cooling circuit of the engine, and in which the fluid is displaced by a circulation pump driven by the internal combustion engine by means of a drive belt which engages with the pulley of the engine crankshaft. In a circuit of this type, the cooling fluid or liquid is delivered to the engine by the pump so as to cool the engine and the heated fluid is then passed through a supply duct to the intake of a heat exchanger or radiator, in which the fluid is cooled and discharges its heat into the surrounding medium. The heat exchanges between the cooling fluid and this medium may be activated in the radiator by a fan which is either driven by the engine or the pump, or driven in an independent manner by an electric motor disposed within a cooling motor fan unit, whose actuation is controlled by a heat contact disposed on the radiator. On discharge from the radiator, the cooling fluid is drawn into the pump and delivered to the engine via a return duct. In addition, a branch duct is connected to the return duct, upstream of the pump, and to the supply duct by means of a thermostat valve. When the engine is started from cold, the thermostat valve causes the fluid to circulate solely in the branch duct and prevents any of the fluid from circulating to the radiator until the temperature of the fluid reaching the thermostat valve has reached a predetermined temperature threshold at which the valve begins to open in order to enable the radiator to be supplied with fluid to be cooled.
Cooling devices of this type also preferably comprise various circuits for heating the carburettor or for the pre-heating of the fuel as well as a circuit for heating the passenger area which comprise, for example, a tap for switching the heating on and off which controls the supply of a heating radiator in which the heat exchanges may be amplified by means of a motor fan heating unit, these circuits being provided as branch lines in the main cooling circuit and being connected, upstream of the thermostat valve, to the supply duct of the main cooling circuit and, upstream of the circulation pump, to the return duct of the main circuit.
It is known that in order to increase the efficiency of an internal combustion engine and in order to reduce pollution levels by decreasing the non-combusted hydrocarbon content of the exhaust gases, it is necessary to keep the cooling fluid at a substantially constant optimum temperature, as far as this is possible. As the fluid pump is driven by the internal combustion engine, the speed of rotation of the pump, and therefore its rate of flow, are proportional at each instant to the engine speed. Consequently, the heat exchanges in the radiator, under normal conditions of operation of the engine, are too great and the fluid is cooled to too great an extent, since the radiator is dimensioned in such a way that its dissipation capacity is sufficient for the most critical operating conditions of the engine with respect to heating, i.e. when the engine is idling or operating at low speed and with a full load, in which conditions the pump is driven at a low speed, or when the vehicle is moving at low speed, in which case the air passing through the radiator has a low speed. Consequently, the engine is not kept at its optimum operating temperature.
Excessive heat exchange levels in the radiator are compensated by the thermostat valve which decreases the mean radiator supply flow in order to reduce the heat exchanges. However this step involves certain drawbacks. The pump is almost constantly driven at a speed which is excessive with respect to requirements, lead
REFERENCES:
patent: 4381736 (1983-05-01), Hirayama
patent: 4387670 (1983-06-01), Robin et al.
patent: 4475485 (1984-10-01), Sakakibara et al.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Equipements Automobiles Marchal
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