Overall optimization of Rankine cycle system for waste heat recovery of heavy-duty vehicle diesel engines considering the cooling power consumption

The Rankine cycle system for waste heat recovery of heavy-duty vehicle diesel engines has been regarded as a promising technique to reduce fuel consumption. Its heat dissipation in the condensation process, however, should be taken away in time, which is an energy-consuming process. A fan-assisted auxiliary water-cooling system is employed in this paper. Results at 1300 r/min and 50% load indicate that the cooling pump and cooling fan together consume 7.66% of the recovered power. What’s worse for the heavy load, cooling accessories may deplete of all the recovered power of the Rankine cycle system. Afterwards, effects of the condensing pressure and water feeding temperature are investigated, based on which a cooling power consumption model is established. Finally, an overall efficiency optimization is conducted to balance the electric power generation and cooling power consumption, taking condensing pressure, pressure ratio and exhaust bypass valve as major variables. The research suggests that the priority is to increase condensing pressure and open exhaust bypass valve appropriately at high speed and heavy load to reduce the cooling power consumption, while at low speed and light load, a lower condensing pressure is favored and the exhaust bypass valve should be closed making the waste heat recovered as much as possible. Within the sub-critical region, a larger pressure ratio yields higher overall efficiency improvement at medium-low speed and load. But the effects taper off at high speed and heavy load. For a given vehicular heavy-duty diesel engine, the overall efficiency can be improved by 3.37% at 1300 r/min and 25% load using a Rankine cycle system to recover exhaust energy. The improvement becomes smaller as engine speed and load become higher.