Q: What is the number one challenge for engineers working on vehicle thermal management systems, in your opinion?
Peter Connor, Senior Research Fellow, University of Nottingham (PC): Increasing power-density requirements for a limited budget.
Dig Vijay, Application Engineer - Thermal Management, Gamma Technologies (DV): Unlike the case of conventional vehicle, today the thermal engineers working on electrical vehicles have to come up with solutions to better utilising the available energy for cabin climate control.
Antonino La Rocca, Research Fellow, University of Nottingham (AR): Steadily increasing on-board power demand requiring highly efficient cooling techniques to be implemented.
Gerald Seider, Consultant, InDesA GmbH (GS): Managing systems-simulation of systems across all stake holders, i.e. various OEM departments and suppliers with different Software tools.
Q: What is the most important development in this field at the moment, either within your organisation or in the industry in general?
PC: The budgetary constraints in the automotive industry make significant power-density gains for electrical machines and power electronics highly challenging.
DV: The most important development is to deliver batteries with high energy and power density that at the same time have longer life.
AR: Our research group is making important step forward in the research field of the electrified transportation.
GS: Setting up common software platforms and strategies to include all stakeholders.
Konstantinos Karamanos, PhD Student, Queen's University of Belfast (KK): The need for more environmentally friendly vehicles has introduced more complex power units, utilising more technologies. This has added new challenges to the thermal management systems.
Q: Where do you see the future of these technologies going in the next 5 – 10 years?
PC: The majority of cars made in the next 5-10 years will be hybrid or fully electric.
DV: I expect that in 5-10 years we will be able to deliver BEVs having better and acceptable range.
AR: Current policies are pushing towards significant reduction of fossil fuel reduction in favour of full electric or hybrid systems; therefore electric traction is set to become increasingly common.
KK: Particularly in the bus industry, there is a need of more accurate integrated thermal management systems. I.e. the engine bay and the cabin must be taken into consideration.
Q: What can attendees expect from your presentation at this year’s conference?
PC: An overview of 3 key challenges for the thermal management of electrical machines.
DV: They would learn about new state-of-the-art simulation models and methods used for handling advanced thermal management tasks.
AR: Thermal management techniques of battery cells commonly employed in electric vehicles.
GS: How to manage complex thermal and energy systems simulation and how to use those techniques in an efficient way.
KK: A novel multi-fidelity model that analyses the underhood thermal systems of a diesel bus will be presented at my presentation. The buses, in comparison with cars, have the engine bay at the rear. This means that highly turbulent and transient airflow enters the engine bay.
Q: What other topics are you looking forward to hearing about and discussing at the upcoming conference?
PC: Thermal management of electrical machines and power converters.
DV: I am interested in learning how to address the xEV powertrain challenges.
AR: Thermal management solutions for electric drive systems.
GS: Thermal design of electronic components their cooling requirements and transient thermal behaviour.
Q: Why do you feel it is important for all engineers to attend the VTMS conference
PC: As we collectively work towards making marginal gains, it is becoming increasingly important to have intra-disciplinary collaborations to find more optimal solutions.
DV: To be able to learn about the new methodologies and practices in the field of vehicle thermal management.
AR: The multi-disciplinary nature of the majority of the topics requires the expertise of engineers from all fields, the contribute of each one can therefore help to identify more optimised solutions.
KK: It is important because there is a variety of people from both academia and industry that will be presenting.
Vehicle Thermal Management Systems Conference and Exhibition - VTMS14 takes place on 5-6 June 2019 at Twickenham Stadium, London.
Taking place every two years and now in its 14th iteration, the Vehicle Thermal Management Systems Conference and Exhibition will showcase the latest research and technological advances in heat transfer, energy management, thermal comfort and the efficient integration and control of all thermal systems within the vehicle.
Speaking organisations for 2019 include
- Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India
- Tata Motors Ltd
- Magna Powertrain
- Toyota Europe SA
- MAHLE Powertrain Ltd
- Williams Advanced Engineering
- Alers
- Shaefller and more.
For further information and to book your place, please visit the event website.