Systems and methods for cooling vehicle components
A system includes heat generating components in a vehicle and a coolant flow path connected to the heat generating components. The system includes a coolant pump that circulates coolant through the coolant flow path and a reversing mechanism that reverses a direction of circulation of coolant.
1. A system, the system comprising:
a first component in contact with coolant and a second component in contact with the coolant in a vehicle;
a coolant pump configured to circulate the coolant through a coolant flow path, in a direction from the first component to the second component, wherein an initial first temperature of the first component is higher than an initial second temperature of the second component; and
a controller configured to, in response to a temperature of the second component increasing from the initial second temperature to a modified second temperature, the modified second temperature being equal to or greater than the initial first temperature, reverse the direction of circulation of coolant to a reversed direction, wherein the reversed direction is from the second component to the first component.
2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more sensors that measure one or more properties of the first component and the second component; and
the controller is configured to reverse the direction of circulation based on measurements from the one or more sensors.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein the controller is configured to periodically reverse the direction of circulation.
4. The system of claim 2 :
wherein the system further comprises one or more valves in the coolant flow path; and;
wherein the one or more valves are operable to reverse the direction of circulation.
5. The system of claim 2 wherein the controller reverses the direction of the coolant pump.
6. The system of claim 4 , further comprising:
a refrigeration mechanism in the coolant flow path that is configured to reduce a temperature of the coolant;
wherein the one or more sensors are configured to measure the temperature of at least one of the first component and of the second component; and
wherein the controller is configured to reverse the direction of circulation based on the temperature measured by the one or more sensors.
7. The system of claim 2 :
wherein the first component contains a first electronic processing unit and the second component contains a second electronic processing unit; and
wherein the controller is configured to determine the direction of circulation based on whichever of the first electronic processing unit and the second electronic processing unit has a larger processing load in its respective queue.