Mahle makes new thermal management gains with iCAS

Dynamic and demand-based control of energy flows in vehicles is one of the great challenges for increasing powertrain efficiency. Automotive supplier Mahle says its iCAS integrated charge air sub-cooling system demonstrates today’s thermal management: innovative, interlinked, efficient.

With the iCAS system, Mahle has now actively incorporated air-conditioning into the engine cooling or charge air cooling system for the first time. The air-conditioning system thus ultimately has an indirect influence on the combustion process.

Until now, the lowest possible charge air temperature was determined by the ambient temperature. With iCAS, Mahle says it has now broken through this barrier. The charge air is first precooled by a conventional charge air cooler, then routed through the iCAS heat exchanger, which in turn is cooled by a dedicated circuit coupled to the vehicle air conditioning system. The charge air can be cooled from about 120deg Celsius to around 10deg Celsius. This greatly increases the amount of charge air supplied and raises the torque of a downsizing petrol engine at low speed by up to 19 percent.

In order to gain acceptance, however, it is crucial for iCAS to improve vehicle dynamics without negatively affecting thermal comfort or fuel consumption. Due to the high thermal inertia and a sophisticated control system, thermal comfort remains constant even while the iCAS is engaged. With regard to fuel consumption, Mahle says it takes advantage of both the surplus capacity of the air- conditioning system and the potential for recuperative preconditioning of iCAS during braking phases—in addition to the thermodynamic advantages in combustion.

In 2014, the Mahle Group generated sales of 9.94 billion euros (Rs 75,981 crore) with around 66,000 employees. Today, Mahle is represented in over 30 countries with 170 production locations. At 16 major development locations in Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Slovenia, the USA, Brazil, Japan, China, and India, more than 5,000 development engineers and technicians are working on innovative solutions.

iCAS system increases fuel efficiency by utilising the surplus energy from the air-conditioning system.

Linking previously independent systems for AC and engine cooling, performance of turbocharged petrol engines is further improved.