Patent ID: 9636969
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: B60H

Claim:
1. An air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle cabin comprising: an air conditioning case defining an airflow passage; an evaporator accommodated in the air conditioning case; a first blower located at an upstream side of the evaporator creating a first airflow in the airflow passage; a second blower located at the upstream side of the evaporator creating a second airflow in the airflow passage; a heater core at a downstream side of the evaporator; a dividing wall extending through the heater core and dividing the air conditioning case into front air passages and rear air passages; a flow ratio control door arranged in a first gap between the evaporator and the heater core, an axis of rotation of the flow ratio control door is at an upstream end portion of the dividing wall, the flow ratio control door is an airflow volume control structure between airflow directed to a front side of the vehicle cabin through the front air passages, and airflow directed to a rear side of the vehicle cabin through the rear air passages; a front air-mix door arranged in the first gap on an upstream side of the front air passages and configured to control airflow through the front air passages; a rear air-mix door arranged in the first gap on an upstream side of the rear air passage and configured to control airflow through the rear air passage; a second gap defined between an upstream heat exchange surface of the evaporator and downstream ends of each of the first blower and the second blower, the second gap is a mixing chamber where first airflow from the first blower and second airflow from the second blower is mixed prior to passing through the evaporator; a control panel disposed in the vehicle cabin operated by a user for setting a preferred air condition setting of the user; and a controller electrically connected to the first blower, the second blower and the control panel; wherein: the controller is configured to calculate a target total airflow amount based on at least the preferred air condition setting; the controller is further configured to determine a blower level of the first blower and a blower level of the second blower based on the target total airflow amount; the first airflow and the second airflow are mixed at the upstream side of the evaporator in the second gap; when the target total airflow amount is less than a predetermined total airflow amount, an amount of increase of the first blower level per a unit increase of the target total airflow amount is larger than the amount of increase of the second blower level; and when the target total airflow amount is equal to or greater than the predetermined total airflow amount, the amount of increase of the first blower level per the unit increase of the target total airflow amount is smaller than the amount of increase of the second blower level.