Simplified AC Condenser Model

The AC (Air Conditioning) condenser plays a vital role in HVAC systems (Heating Ventilating Air Conditioning). In vehicles, it is typically located within a cooling pack, alongside other heat exchangers. Hence, the dissipation of heat from the AC condenser directly affects surrounding components. Therefore, accurate modeling of heat transfer between the refrigerant and air is crucial for vehicle development, especially nowadays for modern battery electric vehicles (BEVs). This paper focuses on the development and verification of a simplified AC condenser model that reduces input data requirements by utilizing directly measured heat performance characteristics. This enables a more general and broadly applicable approach. Despite the simplified input, the model captures the spatial distribution of heat transfer, leading to improved predictions of air outlet temperatures. The model is based on the well-established ∈-NTU method and iteratively applies phase-dependent relations during condensation. Dedicated test equipment was developed as part of this study to support input data acquisition and model verification. The proposed model was evaluated under two distinct operating conditions and verified against the experimental data. The model exhibited good agreement with the measurements in predicting refrigerant inlet and outlet temperatures. The proposed model was verified to capture the refrigerant phase change under the evaluated operating conditions.