Heat exchanger for inside/outside air two-passage unit

Details Heat exchanger for inside/outside air two-passage unit Heat exchanger for inside/outside air two-passage unit

2000-01-18

2001-02-20

Lazarus, Ira S. (Department: 3743)

Heat exchange

Three non-communicating fluids

C165S143000, C165S144000, C165S145000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06189604

ABSTRACT:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 11-10214, filed on Jan. 19, 1999, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a heat exchanger for exchanging heat between air and medium flowing in an air-conditioning unit, and particularly to an automotive interior heat exchanger for heating inside air and outside air flowing in an inside/outside air two-passage unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inside/outside air two-passage unit has been proposed to exhibit a clouding prevention performance and a heating performance simultaneously in a compartment of a vehicle. The inside/outside air two-passage unit has first and second air passages, which are air-tightly separated from each other by an intermediate partition plane.
Inside air is sucked from the compartment into the first air passage through an inside air inlet, passes through a heat exchanger for heating, and is blown out of the first air passage into the compartment through a foot outlet. Outside air is sucked from a vehicle outside into the second air passage through an outside air inlet, passes through a heat exchanger for heating, and then is blown out of the second air passage into the compartment through a defroster outlet or a face outlet.
Inside air, which has been heated, is re-heated by the heat exchanger, and is blown from the foot outlet toward a foot portion of a passenger in the compartment. Accordingly, the heating performance in the compartment is improved. At the same time, outside air having humidity lower than that of inside air is heated by the heat exchange, and is blown from the defroster outlet toward a windshield. Accordingly, the windshield is prevented from being clouded, thereby improving the clouding prevention performance.
An interior condenser (or an interior gas cooler)
110
shown in
FIGS. 5 and 6
can be used as the heat exchanger for heating described above. The interior condenser
110
is installed in a case
100
of an inside/outside air two-passage unit. The case
100
defines therein a first air passage
101
in which inside air flows and a second air passage
102
in which outside air flows. The condenser
110
has upstream side and downstream side first core portions
111
,
112
for exchanging heat between refrigerant and inside air flowing in the first air passage
101
, and upstream side and downstream side second core portions
113
,
114
for exchanging heat between refrigerant and outside air flowing in the second air passage
102
.
Refrigerant discharged from a compressor with high temperature enters the condenser
110
from an inlet side refrigerant passage
115
defined in an inlet pipe, and flows in the downstream side second core portion
114
and in the downstream side first core portion
112
in this order. Then, refrigerant flows into the upstream side first core portion
111
from the downstream side first core portion
112
through a communication pipe
116
, enters the upstream side second core portion
113
, and then flows out of the condenser
110
through an outlet side refrigerant passage
117
defined in an outlet pipe.
In the condenser
110
, refrigerant heats inside air flowing in the first air passage
101
with room temperature (for example, 25° C.) by exchanging heat when it flows in the downstream side first core portion
112
and the upstream side first core portion
111
. Refrigerant further heats outside air flowing in the second air passage
102
with low temperature (for example, −20° C.) by exchanging heat when it flows in the downstream side second core portion
114
and the upstream side second core portion
113
.
In the condenser
110
, however, heat exchange between high temperature refrigerant and low temperature outside air is performed first. After that, heat exchange between intermediate temperature refrigerant and room temperature inside air is performed. Further, refrigerant flows in a direction approximately perpendicular to outside air and inside air directions. Therefore, a temperature efficiency ratio is insufficient when refrigerant exchanges heat with inside air and outside air, so that sufficient heating performance cannot be exhibited to the compartment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above problem. An object of the present invention is to improve a heating performance of a heat exchanger for an inside/outside air two-passage unit, by increasing a temperature efficiency ratio when heat exchange between refrigerant and inside/outside air is performed.
According to the present invention, a heat exchanger has a first core portion disposed in a first air passage for exchanging heat between thermal medium flowing therein and inside air, and a second core portion disposed in a second air passage for exchanging heat between the thermal medium flowing therein and outside air. The second core portion is disposed at a downstream side of the first core portion in a thermal medium flow direction in which the thermal medium flows. Accordingly, the thermal medium exchanges heat with inside air, first, in a state where the thermal medium has a high temperature. After that, the thermal medium exchanges heat with outside air, a temperature of which is lower than that of inside air. As a result, a temperature efficiency ratio when the thermal medium exchanges heat with inside/outside air is increased, resulting in improved heating performance.
Preferably, the first core portion has a first part and a second part disposed at a downstream side of the first part in the thermal medium flow direction and at an upstream side of the first part in an inside air flow direction. Preferably, the second core portion has a third part and a fourth part disposed at a downstream side of the third part in the thermal medium flow direction, and at an upstream side of the third part in an outside air flow direction. Accordingly, the thermal medium forms an opposed flow with respect to the air flow direction in the respective first and second core portions, resulting in further improvement of the heating performance.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5205347 (1993-04-01), Hughes
patent: 5333470 (1994-08-01), Dinh
patent: 5348081 (1994-09-01), Halstead et al.
patent: 5582241 (1996-12-01), Yoho et al.
patent: 6021846 (2000-02-01), Sasaki et al.
patent: 2113819 (1983-08-01), None
patent: 10-226219 (1998-08-01), None

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