My first co-op was at Robert Bosch LLC working as a Thermal Systems Engineer. The project that I was supporting was to make the thermal systems of electric cars more efficient. My part of the project was designing and building a test rig that modeled the thermal systems of an electric car, with interchangeable components. The rig models the interior air loop, external air exchange, and the coolant/refrigerant loops that connect to the heat exchangers and to the motor and batteries. I designed the bulk of the CAD model in Solidworks my second week at the company. I wanted the cart to be as flexible as possible, as components would frequently need to be swapped in and out to test different thermal topologies. I also designed the cart to split apart and take the top air loop off of the bottom one; allowing it to fit through doorways more easily. At the end of my six month term, I had completed the majority of the construction, leaving only the last of the plumbing connections and some HVAC connections. Unfortunately I cannot post photos of my work online, but I can provide physical copies with my portfolio.
This is an image of National Renewable Energy Lab's (NREL) thermal system’s test stand. I used it as the base for my design, but heavily modified it to solve problems that they encountered, as well as improved it to better suit out needs. The test stand that I built somewhat resembles this one, although it does not have the integrated thermal loop system as it was moved to its own cart for accessibility.
Along side my main Thermal Management for Electric Vehicles project at Bosch I designed and built two test stands for prototype three and four way proportional valve testing. Each stand needed to circulate coolant through the test valves, and measure the pressure and flow rate at each output. I designed the flow meters to have adequate upstream and downstream straight lengths for flow straightening, as well as incorporating a four way ball-valve shutoff system to swap out the prototype valve without having to purge the system. All of the piping was 3/4” stainless steel connected with double ferrule compression, as well as 1/4” Tygon tubing as pressure tap lines. Two nearly identical stands were created, one that would circulate clean coolant, and the other with particulate simulant from engine degradation. Both stands had a coolant filter, but I designed the particulate stand to have a filter bypass for normal operation. Again I am not able to post pictures of the coolant loop test stands online, but pictures are available in my physical portfolio.
Proportional Valve Test Stands
Thermal System of Electric Vehicle Test Stand
Above is one of two test stands that I designed and built for the project.