Valeo Sytèmes Thermiques
Valeo is an industrial group fully focused on the design, production and sale of components, systems and modules for automobiles and trucks, both on the original equipment and the aftermarket. The Groups sole sector of activity is Automotive Supply. On 31.12.06, the Group employed 69,800 people, of 91 different nationalities at 129 production sites, 68 Research & Development centers and nine distribution platforms. Valeo also partners a variety of national and international universities and academic institutions. Finally, Valeo proposed projects for French competitive centers (MOVEO, LUTB, ITRANS etc...) on themes relating to energy, power trains, mechatronics, software, complex systems and computer intensive simulations, but also invested in the governance of some of these centers (MOVEO, MTA, System@tic).
Specific skills for ECOQUEST
Engine Cooling (to which belongs Valeo Systèmes Thermiques S.A.S) develops and manufactures components and modules for a full range of engine and transmission cooling functions, with a view to reducing pollution and fuel consumption, and enhancing passenger comfort (noise reduction). Engine Cooling team focused on the following innovations in particular: the UltimateCoolingTM concept, based on the principle of a single coolant system instead of running all fluids to exchangers at the front end of the vehicle, which both improves engine performance and reduces fuel consumption; ThemisTM, the electronic engine cooling system, which is in development for the first mass production applications, with the expansion of the valve range to cover all engine types; and ultra compact and low noise fan systems with variable speed control for an optimized airflow management of these innovative cooling systems.
Key personnel
Dr. Manuel Henner: Earned his engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieur de Belfort in 1991, and then obtained a Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies from the Institute of Fluid Mechanics of Strasbourg in 1993. He spend one year as a research assistant employed by the CNRS (Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques) at the University of Poitiers, where he continued by doing a thesis obtained in 1999 in the domain of Mechanics, Energetics and Thermics. He joined Valeo In 1999 where he contribute to the development and to the integration of the numerical process in a industrial context. He has about 15 years of experience in CFD, with 10 years mainly involved to fan systems and engine cooling. He is now senior expert in the company, and he is in charge for Valeo to manage two French ANR projects CINEMA-2 and STURM4. Dr. Henner will supervise the work which will partly be carried out by a new PhD student recruited for the project and a junior engineer to be pointed out.
Expected outcome/exploitable results and ’action plan' to get results in use
Important expected outcomes are (i) the concept study of a range of automotive cooling units, and (ii) a unit that will be developed to Technology Readiness Level 4 (laboratory scale validation) and tested at full scale. Before mass production VAL introduces the advanced concepts developed within ECOQUEST to all major automotive manufacturers and provides prototypes for testing.
In addition VAL introduces the computer simulation tools
developed within ECOQUEST in the inhouse engineering department
to enhance its engineering capability.