Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to a heat exchanger for a vehicle which can control temperatures of operating fluids which flows in the heat exchanger.
Description of Related Art
Generally, a heat exchanger transfers heat from high-temperature fluid to low-temperature fluid through a heat transfer surface, and is used in a heater, a cooler, an evaporator, and a condenser.
Such a heat exchanger re-uses heat energy or controls a temperature of an operating fluid flowing therein for demanded performance. The heat exchanger is applied to an air conditioning system or a transmission oil cooler of a vehicle, and is mounted at an engine compartment.
Since the heat exchanger is hard to be mounted at the engine compartment with restricted space, studies for the heat exchanger with smaller size, lighter weight, and higher efficiency have been developed.
A conventional heat exchanger controls the temperatures of the operating fluids according to a condition of a vehicle and supplies the operating fluids to an engine, a transmission, or an air conditioning system. For this purpose, bifurcation circuits and valves are mounted on each hydraulic line through which the operating fluids operated as heating medium or cooling medium passes. Therefore, constituent elements and assembling processes increase and layout is complicated.
If additional bifurcation circuits and valves are not used, heat exchanging efficiency cannot be controlled according to flow amount of the operating fluid. Therefore, the temperature of the operating fluid cannot be controlled efficiently.
For warming up or cooling transmission oil and engine oil though heat exchanging, additional heat exchangers are needed to be mounted to an engine, and also additional connecting pipes are required to connecting elements. Thus in a conventional art, manufacturing cost is increased and mounting spaces for the elements are not sufficient.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.