Controllable cooling system for heavy-duty commercial vehicles

It was shown that an energetic optimization of the truck cooling system can be achieved by including a map controlled thermostat, a Visco® fan, a Visco® coolant pump and by applying a smart control strategy. The underlying principles are to minimize the coolant volume flow, reduce fan engagement and to increase the coolant temperature under part load conditions. With a predictive cooling approach additional benefits concerning the reduction of fan engagement, extended retarder operation and drivability can be realized. A very promising next stage of expansion is changing from direct charge air cooling to an indirect system. Investigations at MAHLE have demonstrated that indirect charge air cooling shows, beside improved transient engine performance, a potential consumption reduction[4].