EP2899406B1 - Cooling module with sound insulated blower - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a cooling module according to the preamble of claim 1.

Such cooling modules have a fan wheel, via which ambient air is conveyed through a cooler of the cooling module. In this case, a coolant that was previously used for cooling at a distance from the cooling module is returned to the cooler in a circuit and is then cooled again. The coolant can then be used again for cooling.

Such cooling modules are mounted, for example, on the roofs of rail vehicles in which there are people. The coolant is then pumped into the components of the rail vehicle to be cooled. A disadvantage of such cooling modules is that disruptive noises from the fan wheel are amplified via the housing of the cooling module and can be transmitted into the interior and the surroundings.

It is known from the prior art to line the housing with foams or fibrous materials for sound insulation. The DE 26 28 511 shows such a silencer for a fan, the housing of which has a box-shaped outer wall and a curved inner wall called a fan spiral. In between, sound-absorbing cavities are formed via partition walls, into which insulation material is inserted. Perforated areas are provided for each cavity in the curved inner wall. A disadvantage of such sound insulation is that, in addition to dust, it also absorbs rain or condensation water or even leaked cooling liquid, which reduces its durability. In particular, such sound insulation can be damaged after exposure to liquids at temperatures below freezing point.

The EP 1 980 755 A2 shows part of an air conditioning system that is placed outdoors. It has a fan that is inserted into a front surface of a case. On an inside of the front surface, a plurality of mufflers are provided on the circumference of the fan wheel, which have one or more inner perforated plates and an outer closed plate. Unfilled chambers are formed in between. The mufflers also have side panels that must be attached to the inner perforated panels.

In contrast, the invention is based on the object of creating a cooling module in which these disadvantages are avoided.

This object is achieved by a cooling module with the features of claim 1.

The claimed cooling module has a housing and a fan wheel rotating in it (for example a paddle wheel). For sound insulation, at least one wall section of the housing according to the invention has several chambers, which are delimited at least on the inside by a micro-perforated absorber extending over several chambers and further by partition walls arranged in the interior of the wall section. The micro-perforated absorber has a large number of comparatively small through openings. The chambers are separated from one another by the partition walls. This creates a cooling module in which the durability of the sound insulation is improved. In particular, after exposure to dust and liquid (water or cooling liquid), such sound insulation can also withstand temperatures below freezing point and be cleaned. A wall section is also to be understood as meaning a base or a cover of the housing.

According to the invention, the absorber is in one piece over a certain area. The absorber forms several inner flat wall elements and has contact sections arranged between them. The contact sections of the absorber are in contact with and attached to an outer flat wall element. In this way, the absorber is kept at the selected distance from the outer wall element, which determines the depth of the chambers.

According to the invention, the absorber is formed from a sheet metal and has several mutually parallel bending points. Then two mutually adjacent bending points can delimit a contact section or an inner wall element in pairs.

The passage recesses preferably have a proportion of an area of the absorber of a few percent (in particular less than 8 percent).

For manufacturing reasons, it is preferred if the through cutouts are microslots.

In a cooling module not belonging to the invention, the wall section has an outer flat wall element or an outer wall surface and an inner flat wall element or an inner wall surface. The micro-perforated absorber forms at least the inner wall element or the inner wall surface.

In a first development of the invention, the outer wall element of the wall section is closed. The chambers are thus delimited on the inside by the absorber and on the outside by a sound-reflecting wall element. By choosing the distance between the outer closed wall element and the inner micro-perforated wall element, the sound insulation can be adapted to the sound frequency to be insulated.

Depending on the possible effort and the desired sound insulation, individual or all wall sections of the housing can be lined on the inside with the absorber and provided with the chambers for sound insulation.

In a second development of the invention, the outer wall element of the wall section is also formed by an absorber. The chambers are thus delimited on the outside and inside by absorbers and furthermore by the partition walls. The outer sound system boundary of the cooling module is thus formed by micro-perforated absorber. By choosing the distance between the outer micro-perforated wall element and the inner micro-perforated wall element, the sound insulation can be adapted to the sound frequency of the cooling module to be insulated.

The sound insulation is further improved if the wall section has one or more middle flat wall elements or middle wall surfaces. Two or more levels of chambers are thus formed in the wall section. Here too, the distances between the various wall elements (inner, middle and outer wall element) can also be dimensioned differently and thus adapted to the sound frequency to be insulated.

The planes formed in this way can have different thicknesses and thus chamber depths.

It is simple in terms of device technology and manufacturing technology if the partition walls are arranged between the wall elements and perpendicular to the wall elements.

According to a first embodiment, the partition walls can form a polygonal honeycomb structure.

According to a second embodiment, the partition walls can form a rectangular or square lattice structure.

The partition walls are preferably firmly connected to the flat wall elements. For this purpose, they can be glued, welded, soldered or clamped between the wall elements with an elastic seal. This prevents an acoustic "short circuit" between the partition walls.

In a particularly preferred development, the housing has a frame structure so that the housing has a box-like structure. The at least one wall section provided with chambers according to the invention is then inserted into a frame of this frame structure and / or attached to pins of the frame structure. This results in the possibility of simply manufacturing the wall section as a flat, flat part and attaching it to the frame structure, for example by inserting it between profiles of the frame structure and / or by attaching it to pins.

In the case of the box-like housing in particular, it is preferred, in the interests of efficiency optimization, if the fan wheel forms a radial fan which sucks in ambient air axially via a cooler and discharges it radially. The fan wheel can also form an axial fan.

In particular in the case of the radial fan, further micro-perforated absorber elements can be arranged on the circumference of the fan wheel for further sound insulation, which have a specific angle and radial distance to the fan wheel. The further absorber elements can be arranged in one or more rows. The other absorber elements can have an air-conducting function.

The wall section formed according to the invention with absorber and chambers or further absorber foils can be arranged parallel or along an air flow.

In a development not belonging to the invention, the absorber can be made of plastic.

The cooling module can have a further fan wheel, one or more wall sections according to the invention (also) being arranged between them.

The housing can have or delimit a blow-out duct which is arranged behind the fan wheel in the direction of flow of the air flow. Then the exhaust duct can (also) have a wall section according to the invention for sound insulation.

The housing can have or delimit an intake duct which is arranged in front of the fan wheel in the direction of flow of the air flow. Then the intake duct can (also) have a wall section according to the invention for sound insulation.

To maximize the effectiveness of the absorber, the size of the chambers can be designed depending on the blade frequency of the rotating fan wheel to be insulated. The blade frequency can be determined from the primary rotational frequency (for example nominal rotational frequency) of the fan wheel and the number of blade blades of the fan wheel. The airfoil frequency can be 440 Hz in one application.

The size of the chambers is defined by the distance between the wall sections and the distance between the partition walls.

In a preferred embodiment, the cooling module according to the invention has supports which are designed to fasten the cooling module to a roof, in particular a rail vehicle.

• Figur 1 ein erstes Ausführungsbeispiel des erfindungsgemäßen Kühlmoduls in einer perspektivischen Ansicht,
• Figur 2 das erste Ausführungsbeispiel des erfindungsgemäßen Kühlmoduls in einer teilweise geschnittenen seitlichen Ansicht,
• Figuren 3a und 3b jeweils ein Ausführungsbeispiel von Trennwänden und Kammern,
• Figur 4 ein zweites Ausführungsbeispiel des erfindungsgemäßen Kühlmoduls in einer teilweise geschnittenen Ansicht,
• Figur 5 ein Gehäuse eines dritten Ausführungsbeispiels des erfindungsgemäßen Kühlmoduls in einer schematischen perspektivischen Ansicht,
• Figuren 6a und 6b einen Wandabschnitt des dritten Ausführungsbeispiels gemäß Figur 5, und
• Figur 7 das dritte Ausführungsbeispiel des Kühlmodul gemäß den Figuren 5 und 6 in einer schematischen geschnittenen seitlichen Ansicht.
• Figur 1 zeigt ein erstes Ausführungsbeispiel des erfindungsgemäßen Kühlmoduls in einer perspektivischen Ansicht. Es hat zwei Querträger 1, die quer zur Fahrtrichtung auf einem Dach eines Schienenfahrzeugs (beide nicht gezeigt) montiert werden. Die Querträger 1 tragen einen Kühler 2, ein Zwischengehäuse 4 und ein Lüfterradgehäuse 6 mit einem Ausblaskanal 10.

Two exemplary embodiments of the invention are described in detail below with reference to the figures. Show it:

• Figure 1 a first embodiment of the cooling module according to the invention in a perspective view,
• Figure 2 the first embodiment of the cooling module according to the invention in a partially sectioned side view,
• Figures 3a and 3b each one embodiment of partition walls and chambers,
• Figure 4 a second embodiment of the cooling module according to the invention in a partially sectioned view,
• Figure 5 a housing of a third embodiment of the cooling module according to the invention in a schematic perspective view,
• Figures 6a and 6b a wall portion of the third embodiment according to Figure 5 , and
• Figure 7 the third embodiment of the cooling module according to the Figures 5 and 6 in a schematic sectional side view.
• Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of the cooling module according to the invention in a perspective view. It has two cross members 1, which are mounted transversely to the direction of travel on a roof of a rail vehicle (both not shown). The cross members 1 carry a cooler 2, an intermediate housing 4 and a fan wheel housing 6 with a blow-out duct 10.

When the cooling module according to the invention is in operation, coolant is guided through the radiator 2 via a coolant pump 8 and from there into an interior space of the rail vehicle (both not shown). At the same time, a radial fan wheel arranged inside the fan wheel housing 6 (cf. Figure 2 ) Ambient air is sucked through the cooler 2 and through the intermediate housing 4 into the fan wheel housing 6. The radial fan wheel is driven by an electric motor 16. The ambient air is discharged from the fan wheel housing 6 through the blow-out channel 10 formed thereon to the environment. The ambient air, after it has absorbed heat from the supplied coolant in the cooler 2, is thus guided through a housing of the cooling module, which essentially consists of the intermediate housing 4, the fan wheel housing 6 and the blow-out duct 10.

Figure 2 shows the cooling module according to Figure 1 in a partially sectioned side view. Going beyond the coolant pump 8 and the two cross members 1 shown in section, a section through the fan wheel housing 6 is shown in particular. In the fan wheel housing 6, the radial fan wheel 12 is arranged adjacent to a wall section 14 of the fan wheel housing 6. The ambient air flows axially through to the radial fan wheel 12 and leaves it radially.

The wall section 14 is formed in one piece with a wall section of the blow-out duct 10. Furthermore, a cover 20 and a base 22 of the fan wheel housing 6 are shown, the base 22 being formed in one piece with a base 24 of the blow-out duct 10 angled therefrom.

A micro-perforated absorber 28 is attached to the cover 20 of the fan wheel housing 6 and to the common wall section 14 of the fan wheel housing 6 and the exhaust duct 10 and to the base 24 of the exhaust duct 10, the absorbers 28 of the cover 20 and the base 24 being cut are shown, while the absorber 28 of the wall section 14 is shown in a view. The absorbers 28 are made of aluminum sheet and are angled several times according to a regular scheme. As a result of the bends, each absorber 28 has strip-shaped contact sections 30 which are fastened to the fan wheel housing 6 and which lie essentially flat on the wall section 14 or on the base 24 or on the cover 20. Adjacent to this, strip-shaped sections are formed, between each of which a main section 32 of the absorber 28 designed as an inner flat element is arranged. The main sections 32 are preferably arranged parallel to the wall section 14 or to the base 24 or to the cover 20. This creates a plurality of flat spaces 34 which are connected to the interior of the housing 6 only via a multiplicity of microslots which penetrate the absorber 28.

Figures 3a and 3b each show an exemplary embodiment of regular structures made of partition walls 35; 135, which are set up inside the rooms 34 to separate chambers 36; 136 to form. More precisely, the first embodiment has lattice-like partition walls 35, while the partition walls of the second embodiment are arranged in such a way that honeycomb-like chambers 136 result. In both exemplary embodiments, the height of the partition walls corresponds to 35; 135 and thus the chambers 36; 136 is the height of the spaces 34, which is defined by the distance between the main sections 32 of the absorbers 28 and the outer wall section 14 or from the floor 24 or from the cover 20. This creates chambers, the size of which is designed as a function of the sound frequency to be attenuated.

Figure 4 shows a second embodiment of the cooling module according to the invention in a partially sectioned view. In addition to the first cooler 2 according to the previous exemplary embodiment, the cooling module has a second cooler 102, which is separated from the incoming ambient air (in Figure 4 from left to right) before it flows through the first cooler 2, the intermediate housing 4 and the fan wheel housing 6. The second exemplary embodiment also has a coolant filter 144.

In Figure 4 it is shown that the absorbers 28 are fastened to the respective housing 4, 6 via their contact sections 30 and via rivet nuts 146. For this purpose, the rivet nuts 146 penetrate the affected walls and floors and ceilings of the housings 4, 6. Some wall sections of the housings 4, 6 have absorbers 28 on their inside through which the spaces 34 are formed into which, according to the invention, grid-like or honeycomb-like regular structures of partition walls are fitted to form chambers.

Figure 5 shows a housing 206 of a third embodiment of the cooling module according to the invention in a schematic perspective view. It is designed as a frame construction and has profiles 248 along its edges. A flat, precisely fitting wall section 214 is inserted into each of the areas between the profiles 248.

Figures 6a and 6b show a wall section 214 of the third embodiment according to FIG Figure 5 . More precisely shows Figure 6a the wall section in a perspective view, while Figure 6b shows the wall section 214 in a side sectional view. The wall sections are formed from three flat wall elements of micro-perforated absorbers 28, that is to say from an inner wall element 250, a middle wall element 252 and an outer wall element 254. In between, two levels or spaces 34 are formed in which partition walls 35; 135 and chambers 36; 136 (for example according to one of the exemplary embodiments according to FIGS Figures 3a or 3b ) are arranged.

The partition walls 35; 135 are attached to the wall elements 250, 252, 254 so that the chambers 36; 136 - apart from the perforations designed as microslits - are airtight.

The outer wall element 254 has holes 256 via which it is pushed onto pins 258 of the profiles 248.

Figure 7 shows the third embodiment of the cooling module according to Figures 5 and 6 in a schematic sectional view. It is shown that the radial fan wheel 12 conveys the ambient air radially outward. According to the arrows, part of the ambient air penetrates through the microslots of three additional absorber elements 218 distributed around the circumference of the radial fan wheel 12 and of three wall elements 250, 252, 254 Figure 1 ) promoted to the outside world.

Disclosed is a cooling module with a housing and with a radial fan wheel which serves as a fan for a cooler. For sound insulation, the housing has an absorber formed from an aluminum sheet, which has a large number of microslots. Inner walls of the housing are completely or partially lined with the absorber, as a result of which spaces are formed between the inner wall and the absorber, which spaces are divided into chambers by honeycomb-shaped or grid-shaped partition walls. The chambers are with it connected to the interior of the housing only through the micro-slots and dampen the sound of the radial fan wheel. Alternatively, the outer housing wall can also be formed by an absorber which has a large number of microslots.

List of reference symbols

1

Cross member

2; 102

cooler

4th

Intermediate housing

6th

Fan housing

8th

Coolant pump

10

Exhaust duct

12

Radial fan wheel

14; 214

Wall section

16

Electric motor

20th

cover

22nd

ground

24

ground

28

absorber

30th

Plant section

32

Main section / inner flat wall element

34

room

35; 135

partition wall

36; 136

chamber

40

cover

144

Coolant filter

146

Rivet nut

206

casing

218

Absorber element

248

profile

250

inner wall element

252

middle wall element

254

outer wall element

256

hole

258

pen

Claims (12)

1. Cooling module having a fan wheel (12) and having a housing (4, 6, 10; 206), wherein, for sound attenuation, at least one wall portion (14, 20, 24, 40; 214) of the housing (4, 6, 10; 206) has chambers (36; 136) which are delimited by a microperforated absorber (28) extending over a plurality of chambers (36; 136) and by partitions (35; 135), wherein the microperforated absorber (28) has a plurality of comparatively small through-apertures, and wherein the chambers (36; 136) are separated from one another by the partitions (35; 135), wherein the absorber (28) is in one piece, characterized in that the absorber (28) forms a plurality of inner flat wall elements (32) and, between them, has contact portions (30) in contact with an outer flat wall element, wherein the absorber (28) is formed from a metal sheet and has a plurality of mutually parallel bending points.
2. Cooling module according to Claim 1, wherein the outer wall element is closed.
3. Cooling module according to Claim 1, wherein the outer wall element (254) is formed from a microperforated absorber (28).
4. Cooling module according to either of Claims 2 and 3, wherein the wall portion (214) has one or more central flat wall elements (252).
5. Cooling module according to one of Claims 2 to 4, wherein the partitions (35; 135) are arranged between the wall elements (250, 252, 254) and perpendicularly thereto.
6. Cooling module according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the partitions (35; 135) form a honeycomb structure or a lattice structure.
7. Cooling module according to one of Claims 2 to 6, wherein the partitions (35; 135) are fixedly connected to the wall elements (250, 252, 254).
8. Cooling module according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the housing (206) has a frame structure into which the wall portion (214) is inserted.
9. Cooling module according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the fan wheel (12) forms a radial blower.
10. Cooling module according to Claim 9, wherein further microperforated absorber elements (218) are arranged on the periphery of the fan wheel (12) and have a specific angle to and radial distance from the fan wheel (12).
11. Cooling module according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the wall portion (14, 20, 24, 40; 214) is arranged parallel to an air flow.
12. Cooling module according to one of the preceding claims having a further fan wheel, wherein the wall portion is arranged between the fan wheel (12) and the further fan wheel.

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