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In order to cope with new regulations and find a better compromise between fuel consumption, pollutant emissions and comfort, thermal management technologies are getting more complex. This is especially true when it requires replacing a basic passive solution with a mechatronic system. A new Active Cooling Thermal-management (ACT) valve concept has been developed to specifically replace wax thermostat while keeping the same packaging and cost range and bringing closed loop temperature control, fast response time and precision. This new module is manufactured by assembling injected thermoplastic components. By essence it leads to dimension tolerances, deformation and wear over its life. Those uncertainties and deviations have to be taken into account when the nominal part is designed to ensure part efficiency till the end of its life.

The future environmental constraints [e.g. WLTC +RDE, CAFE, Euro 6.2, 7] for the pollutant emissions lead to new challenges for the internal combustion engine. One of the solutions to decrease the fuel consumption, the CO2 and pollutant emissions whilst keeping the same driving and thermal comforts is the engine's thermal management, in particular during the warm-up phase. Furthermore, the traditional cooling system is not designed to work at the new engine transient thermal conditions at a non-optimal temperature in terms of fuel economy and exhaust emission. This paper describes a new technology for engine cooling systems that is able to control the coolant flow and temperature in relation to the engine conditions such as load and rotational speed. With a no flow in crankcase cooling strategy and a high engine temperature regulation, the Active Cooling Thermomanagement Valve succeeds in decreasing the fuel consumption without deteriorating engine's performance.