Experimental study on a novel integrated thermal management system for electric vehicles utilizing a dual-suction compressor

The widely adopted dual-evaporator integrated thermal management system is crucial for ensuring driving safety and occupant comfort in electric vehicles. However, given the different cooling requirements for occupants and power batteries, existing systems are unable to efficiently decouple the evaporation temperatures of the cabin evaporator and battery evaporator. The intermediate-pressure port of the vapor injection compressor may be utilized to directly integrate the battery evaporator for cooling purposes. Building on this concept, a “cabin + battery” type integrated thermal management system employing a dual-suction scroll compressor is proposed and experimentally investigated at different evaporation temperatures of both evaporators and compressor speeds. The novel system is comprehensively evaluated against both a conventional baseline and a modified system equipped with a pressure reducer. Results demonstrate that the dual-suction system operates stably under two distinct evaporation temperatures and exhibits enhanced cooling performance compared with both baseline systems. Quantitative improvements over the reference modified system include 16.5–43.7 % higher cooling capacity, 1.8–29.4 % higher coefficient of performance, and 6.4–18.4 °C lower compressor discharge temperature. Additionally, for the dual-suction system, adopting a strategy that reduces the evaporation temperature of the cabin evaporator while increasing that of the battery evaporator proves notable effectiveness in enhancing the cooling capacity of the battery evaporator. A promising energy-saving and efficient integrated thermal management system solution for electric vehicles is provided.