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Vehicle thermal management

The vehicle thermal management area seeks to develop the advanced new technologies needed for more efficient energy management and heating/cooling of vehicles, particularly for electric and hydrogen vehicles. This includes thermal modelling of the passenger compartment, interior air handling, cooling loop, front airflow and engine thermal loops. Advanced design tools such as energy modelling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are utilized in this research.

Another area of research involves aerodynamic studies, which will include wind tunnel testing inside ACE. This research aims to provide experimental data that assists model development for vehicle thermal management. Through laser and imaging techniques, the acquisition of turbulence and heat transfer data in the climatic wind tunnel will provide key data to improve heating, ventilation and air contiditioning (HVAC) and interior heating/cooling systems of the vehicle.

Faculty members

Selected publications and grants

Rohrauer, G (Principal Investigator), Dincer, I., Pop-Iliev, R., Eklund, J. M., Naterer, G. F., "Thermal Management System Technology Development for Extended Range Electric Vehicles", GM Canada, Automotive Partnerships Canada, NSERC, CFI, 2009-2013.

Ramandi, M., Dincer, I., Naterer, G. F., "Numerical Study of Thermal Management of Electric Vehicle Batteries using PCMs", Technical Report 30-09-09, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, UOIT, September, 2009.

Dincer, I., "Assessing and Improving Fuel Cell Vehicles through Sustainability, Thermodynamic, Environmental and Life Cycle Analyses", Premier's Research Excellence Award, Province of Ontario, 2004-2008.

Wang, X., Naterer, G. F., Bibeau, E., "Wind Tunnel Measurements of Convective Heat Transfer with Droplet Impact on a Wind Turbine NACA 63-421 Blade", ASME-JSME Thermal Engineering and Heat Transfer Conference, Vancouver, BC, July, 2007.

Naterer, G. F., Popplewell, N., Barrett, W., Anderson, J., Faraci, E., McCartney, D., Lehmann, W., "Experimental Facility for Hybrid Ice/Spray Flow Tunnel with Laser Based Droplet Measurement", AIAA 32nd Fluid Dynamics Conference, St. Louis, MO, June, 2002.