Researches on Heat Pump System using Rotary Compressor in Electric Vehicle

In China, electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasing popular. With several years practical operation experiences, a lot of news reports reveal the existing electrical supplementary heating can dramatically impact the driving range of EVs under cold weather in north China. The high efficient electric heat pump system has become the research hotspot, but previous research show the heat pump operation could supply adequate heating capacity only in mild weather conditions when the working fluid is R134a. Since the user can’t change environment temperature, choose a high pressure working fluid to have better heating performance become a realistic choice. Now the aluminum scroll compressor is wildly used in EVs, but because of the material and structure, it can’t endure the long term high pressure operation. This paper adopted the low cost steel rotary compressor and high pressure working fluid to build the EV heat pump system. The heat pump cycles using R134a, R407c and R290 have been theoretically analyzed; the rotary compressor has been redesigned to respectively apply the R134a, R407c and R290; the heat pump test rig has been build; three combinations (compressor, oil and working fluid) under the same cold weather conditions have been experimentally researched. Results showed the rotary compressor with the high pressure working fluid applied system can generate adequate heating capacity with less energy