Heat exchanging system having cooling fan, for vehicle

• US 5,947,189 A
• Filed: 03/10/1998
• Issued: 09/07/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Takeuchi, Kazuhiro, Usami, Takuya, Sugiyama, Toshiki
• Primary Examiner(s): LEO, LEONARD R
• Application Number:
  US09/037,380
• Time in Patent Office: 546 Days
• Field of Search: 165/80.3, 165/121, 165/122, 165/44, 165/51, 123/41.11, 123/41.31, 236/35, 361/690, 361/697
• US Class Current: 165/51
• CPC Class Codes: F01P 2050/30 Circuit boards
• CPC Class Codes: F04D 25/06 the pump being electrically driven F04D25/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F04D 25/166 using fans
• CPC Class Codes: F04D 29/5813 Cooling the control unit
• CPC Class Codes: F04D 29/582 specially adapted for elastic fluid pumps

Abstract

A heat exchanging system includes two cooling fans for cooling heat exchanging medium of a heat exchanger, and a control device for controlling rotational speeds of the cooling fans. The control device is attached to an outer surface of a fan shroud so that radiation fins of the control device is disposed inside the fan shroud. Further, the radiation fins of the control device is disposed between two fan accommodating portions each having a cylindrical shape. That is, the control device is disposed in a comparatively large space formed by two fan accommodating portions. Therefore, the control device can be readily attached to the fan shroud on a vehicle, and the size of the radiation fins can be made larger. Thus, the heat exchanging system cools the control device sufficiently while improving ventilation performance of the cooling fans.

Claims

1. A heat exchanging system for a vehicle having an engine compartment and an engine disposed in the engine compartment, said heat exchanging system comprising:

a heat exchanger for performing heat exchange between heat exchanging medium flowing within said heat exchanger and air passing through said heat exchanger;

a cooling fan for blowing air toward said heat exchanger to cool the heat exchanging medium within said heat exchanger;

an electric motor for driving said cooling fan;

an air guiding duct, disposed between said heat exchanger and said cooling fan, for guiding air generated by said cooling fan to pass through said heat exchanger;

a control device having a semiconductor switching element for controlling a rotational speed of said electric motor, and a radiation fin unit for facilitating heat radiation of said semiconductor switching element, wherein;

said control device is attached to an outer surface of said air guiding duct in such a manner that said radiation fin unit is disposed inside said air guiding duct.

2. The heat exchanging system according to claim 1, wherein:

said air guiding duct has an opening portion for communicating an outside of said air guiding duct with an inside thereof; and

said radiation fin unit is disposed inside said air guiding duct through said opening portion.

3. The heat exchanging system according to claim 1, wherein said air guiding duct has an air intake port at an upstream air side proximate to said radiation fin unit.

4. The heat exchanging system according to claim 1, wherein said radiation fin unit has a plurality of plate-like radiation fins laminated at an interval in parallel with a flow direction of air flowing through said air guiding duct.

5. The heat exchanging system according to claim 1, wherein:

said cooling fan has a first fan portion and a second fan portion; and

said electric motor has a first motor portion for driving said first fan portion and a second motor portion for driving said second fan portion.

6. The heat exchanging system according to claim 5, wherein:

said air guiding duct includes

a duct portion, having a shape similar to an outer shape of said heat exchanger, at an immediately downstream air side of said heat exchanger,

a first fan accommodating portion, formed in a cylindrical shape at a downstream air side of said duct portion, for accommodating said first fan portion, and

a second fan accommodating portion, formed in a cylindrical shape at a downstream air side of said duct portion in parallel with said first fan accommodating portion, for accommodating said second fan portion; and

said first and second fan accommodating portions have an air-flow sectional area smaller than that of said duct portion.

7. The heat exchanging system according to claim 6, wherein:

said air guiding duct has an attachment portion disposed on an extending line for connection said duct portion and said first and second fan accommodating portions; and

said control device is attached to said attachment portion.

8. The heat exchanging system according to claim 7, wherein:

said heat exchanger has a ventilation surface perpendicular to a flow direction of air passing through said heat exchanger; and

said attachment portion is disposed to extend substantially parallel to said ventilation surface of said heat exchanger.

9. The heat exchanging system according to claim 5, wherein:

said radiation fin unit is disposed at a center portion between said first and second fan portions in such a manner air generated by said first and second fan portions is blown toward said radiation fin unit.

10. The heat exchanging system according to claim 9, wherein:

said air guiding duct has a partition portion, at a center portion between said first and second fan portions, for partitioning an interior of said air guiding duct into a first air passage corresponding to said first fan accommodating portion and a second air passage corresponding to said second fan accommodating portion; and

said partition portion is formed to have a communication path for communicating said first air passage and said second air passage.

11. The heat exchanging system according to claim 10, wherein said radiation fin unit is disposed in said communication path.

12. The heat exchanging system according to claim 10, wherein said control device is disposed at a side of said first air passage in such a manner that said radiation fin unit is disposed in said first air passage to be shifted from said communication path.

13. The heat exchanging system according to claim 10, wherein said partition portion is disposed to guide air toward said radiation fin unit when any one of first and second fans is stopped.

14. The heat exchanging system according to claim 5, further comprising:

a physical amount detecting unit for detecting a physical amount of the heat exchanging medium of said heat exchanger;

an abnormity determining unit for determining an abnormity of said first and second motor portions, wherein;

said control device controls each rotational speed of said first and second motor portions according to the physical amount detected by said physical amount detecting unit; and

said first motor portion is set to have a rotational speed more than a predetermined speed when said abnormity determining unit determines that said second motor portion has the abnormity.

15. The heat exchanging system according to claim 1, wherein:

said heat exchanger is disposed in said engine compartment at a vehicle front side of said engine; and

said cooling fan is disposed between said heat exchanger and said engine.

16. The heat exchanging system according to claim 1, wherein said heat exchanging medium is cooling water for cooling said engine.

17. A cooling fan system for a heat exchanger for performing heat exchange between air passing through said heat exchanger and heat exchanging medium flowing in said heat exchanger, said cooling fan system comprising:

a cooling fan for blowing air toward said heat exchanger to cool the heat exchanging medium within said heat exchanger;

an electric motor for driving said cooling fan;

an air guiding duct, disposed between said heat exchanger and said cooling fan to extend from an immediately downstream air side of said heat exchanger toward said cooling fan, for guiding air generated by said cooling fan to pass through said heat exchanger;

a control device for controlling a rotational speed of said electric motor; and

a radiation fin unit, connected to said control device, for facilitating heat radiation of said control device, wherein;

said control device is attached to an outer surface of said air guiding duct in such a manner that said radiation fin unit is disposed inside said air guiding duct.

18. The cooling fan system according to claim 17, wherein:

said air guiding duct has an opening portion for communicating an outside of said air guiding duct with an inside thereof; and

said radiation fin unit is disposed inside said air guiding duct through said opening portion.

19. The heat exchanging system according to claim 18, wherein:

said cooling fan has a first fan portion and a second fan portion;

said electric motor has a first motor portion for driving said first fan portion and a second motor portion for driving said second fan portion;

said air guiding duct includes

a duct portion, having a shape similar to an outer shape of said heat exchanger, at an immediately downstream air side of said heat exchanger,

a first fan accommodating portion, formed in a cylindrical shape at a downstream air side of said duct portion, for accommodating said first fan portion, and

a second fan accommodating portion, formed in a cylindrical shape at a downstream air side of said duct portion in parallel with said first fan accommodating portion, for accommodating said second fan portion; and

said first and second fan accommodating portions have an air-flow sectional area smaller than that of said duct portion.

20. The heat exchanging system according to claim 19, wherein:

said air guiding duct has an attachment portion disposed on an extending line for connection said duct portion and said first and second fan accommodating portions;

said attachment portion is disposed to extend substantially perpendicular to a flow direction of air passing through said heat exchanger; and

said control device is attached to said attachment portion in such a manner that said radiation fin unit is disposed inside said air guiding duct.