Grille shutter opening/closing control device

Abstract

Provided is a grille shutter opening / closing control device capable of appropriately opening and closing a grille shutter according to the environment outside a vehicle and the operating state of an air conditioner while ensuring the operation of the air conditioner, thereby achieving sufficient improvement of the operation efficiency of the vehicle. An air conditioner operating time ratio (RA / CON) that is the ratio of the operating time of an air conditioner (32) to the overall time is calculated. When the calculated air conditioner operating time ratio (RA / CON) is larger than the sum of a threshold value (RREF) calculated according to an ambient temperature (TAM) and a hysteresis constant ( R), a grille shutter (47) is opened (steps 29, 31, 73, 77). As a result, the cooling of a refrigerant in the air conditioner (32) can be accelerated and power consumption of the air conditioner (32) can be reduced. Therefore, the grille shutter (47) can be appropriately opened and closed according to the ambient temperature (TAM) and the operating rate of the air conditioner (32) while the operation of the air conditioner (32) is ensured, thereby achieving the improvement of fuel cost.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a control device for opening and closing a grille shutter, which is freely opened and closed at the front of a vehicle, and when opened, outside air for cooling the refrigerant of an air conditioner is introduced into the vehicle Inside. Background technique [0002] As a conventional grille shutter opening and closing control device, for example, a device described in Patent Document 1 is known. The grill damper is used to blow the outside air for cooling to the radiator arranged in the engine compartment of the vehicle. In this opening and closing control device, the water temperature of the radiator is detected, and when the detected water temperature is equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature, the grill damper is opened to cool the radiator in order to prevent the engine from overheating. On the other hand, when the water temperature of the radiator is lower than a predetermined temperature, the grill ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0005] However, in the above-mentioned existing opening and closing control device, only the opening and closing of the grille damper is controlled according to the water temperature of the radiator, the operation status of the air conditioner, and the temperature in the engine room.

Therefore, depending on the external environment of the vehicle, the actual operating state of the air conditioner, etc., the closing of the grille door may conversely worsen the fuel consumption, and thus the fuel consumption may not be sufficiently improved.

[0006] For example, when the air conditioner is turned on, even if the position of the fan switch is the same, when the outside air temperature is high, the load on the air conditioner increases, and the power consumed by the air conditioner to drive the compressor, etc. increases, resulting in an increase in fuel consumption.

Therefore, even if the grille door is closed in this state, the increase in fuel consumption due to the power consumption of the air conditioner exceeds the improvement in fuel consumption due to the closure, and the fuel consumption of the vehicle as a whole still deteriorates in this case.

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