Thermal and hydraulic analysis of the adsorption bed of the adsorptive thermal battery

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) have a drawback of relatively short drive range that affects their adoption rate. In order to increase the drive range of EVs, replacing heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system with a novel absorbent system of materials and methods is widely investigated. This work focuses on the analysis of the design of such a system to suggest efficiency improvements. The thermal insulation and choice of pump required for the optimal function of the adsorptive bed that carries the novel material are analyzed respectively to understand system performance. A thermal resistance analysis was performed in order to understand the undesirable heat loss from the system that decreases the efficiency. Moreover, pressure loss in the piping system was determined theoretically to choose a compatible pump. This analysis also resulted in a modular code that can be used to test different design parameters for future work,