Cold storage heat exchanger

Abstract

A cold storage heat exchanger for exchanging heat with air flowing therearound includes a refrigerant passage in which refrigerant flows, and a cold storage container that accommodates therein cold storage materials which exchanges heat with the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant passage and retains the amount of heat from the refrigerant. The cold storage materials having different melting points are accommodated in the cold storage container.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-135042 filed on Jun. 14, 2012, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present disclosure relates to a cold storage heat exchanger used for a refrigeration cycle device.BACKGROUND ART[0003]Conventionally, a refrigeration cycle device is used for an air-conditioning system. An attempt is made to provide limited refrigerated air-conditioning even in a state where this refrigeration cycle device is stopped. For example, in an air-conditioning system for a vehicle, the refrigeration cycle device is driven by an engine for traveling. For this reason, when the engine stops while the vehicle is making a brief stop, the refrigeration cycle device is stopped. An “idle reduction vehicle” which stops its engine while the vehicle is stopped, waiting for a traffic light, for example, in order to improve fuel efficiency increases in number. Suc...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present disclosure provides a cold storage heat exchanger that can maintain a cold storage function in a wide range of air temperature. This is achieved by using cold storage materials with different melting points that are placed in separate containers. When the refrigerant temperature is high, only the material with higher melting point solidifies to carry out the cold storage function. As the refrigerant temperature decreases, all the materials solidify to store the cold in stages. This allows for a wider range of air temperature in which the cold storage function can be carried out.

Problems solved by technology

Such an idle reduction vehicle has an issue that the refrigeration cycle device stops while the vehicle is stopped (while its engine is stopped), so that comfortableness of the vehicle interior is impaired.

If the engine is restarted even while the vehicle is stopped to maintain an air-conditioning feeling, there is also an issue that an improvement in fuel efficiency is prevented.

Accordingly, a temperature change of blown-out air can be limited to maintain an air-conditioning feeling until the cold storage material is completely melted.

However, in case of use under temperature environment where the cold storage material cannot be solidified while idling is stopped, a sufficient amount of cold air cannot be accumulated.

Thus, because cold air cannot be released for a long time, there is an issue that an idle stop time is shortened to maintain an air-conditioning feeling.

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