Volume 40: Energy Transitions toward Carbon Neutrality: Part III

Analysis of leakage and diffusion of R290 in the engine compartment of electric vehicle Xiwen Wang, Kuining Li, Jiangyan Liu, Yi Xie

Abstract

As an alternative refrigerant of R134a, natural refrigerant R290 has gradually been studied in the automotive air conditioning system. Due to its explosive characteristics, a certain safety hazard will be caused once leaks. This article studies the leakage and distribution of R290 under different working conditions through numerical simulation. The effects of leakage pores, charge amount, and leakage positions on R290 leaked diffusion. The results show that the leakage phase can be divided into a fast leakage stage, buffer stage, and diffusion phase. The leakage of the condenser is the most dangerous situation in the engine compartment leakage. Increasing the aperture and charge will increase the combustible area and duration of R290 leakage. Compared with the leakage diameter, the charge amount is more impact on the continuous duration of the internal flammable areas in the engine compartment.

Keywords Automotive Air conditioning, R290 refrigerant, leakage diffusion, numerical simulation