Thermal management for a light-dutyvehicle with diesel engine: Evaluation of an optimized cooling system with variable cooling components

Vehicle thermal management faces increased importance since a higher efficiency of ICE powered vehicles is requested. The fuel consumption benefits from thermal management is linked to two areas: By using the coolant pump and fan according to the real demand and improving their efficiency the auxiliary losses can be reduced and secondly: by operating the engine in an optimal temperature range regarding friction and combustion the overall powertrain efficiency can be increased. At cold start, the fast warm up of the engine and the transmission is important. During normal operation, the cooling system has to keep the engine in a temperature range that friction is minimized, protect the engine from overheating and create minimum auxiliary losses.