The present invention relates to systems for detecting leakage of coolant from radiator tanks.
BACKGROUND
The background information herein below relates to the present disclosure but is not necessarily prior art.
The cooling system of a vehicle includes a radiator and a cooling circuit provided around the engine to facilitate dissipation of heat from the engine. The cooling is achieved by a coolant which is passed from a coolant tank, through the radiator and the circuit to prevent overheating of the engine in hot conditions, and from freezing in cold conditions.
It is essential to maintain the coolant levels in the coolant tank to prevent dire and even irreversible effects. Hence, leakage of the coolant from the coolant tank is a cause of concern, particularly as the leaked coolant can cause damage to various electronic components of the vehicle and potentially create a risk of electrocution or fire. Coolant leakage further causes corrosion of the surrounding components, especially components made of aluminium.
Further, leakage of the coolant subsequently results in decrease of the coolant level in the tank. Conventionally, there does not exist any alerting system that indicates decrease in the coolant level. As a result, the vehicle user remains unaware of the depleting coolant levels. Consecutively, the cooling system has to work harder than normal operating conditions to cool the engine. Further, the engine has to work relatively more to aid the cooling system. As a result, the engine becomes overheated, thereby affecting the overall efficiency of the engine. Yet in such an overheated state, there isn't sufficient amount of coolant to dissipate the heat of the engine. Consequently, the possibility of damage to the engine components increases.

Possible sources of leakage of the coolant are the coolant tank and the cooling circuit. Of the both, it has been observed that the probability of leakage from the coolant tank is more. Usually, leakage from the coolant tank occurs due to leaky tank cap or due to cracks formed in the coolant tank body.
Usual practices to know whether the coolant is leaking or not, requires the user to alight from the vehicle and visually inspect the radiator tank. Typical inferences for inspecting the leakage include observance of fumes or residues of the coolant, observance of coolant puddle beneath the vehicle, or overheating of engine and its neighboring components thereof. However, manual inspection of the source of leakage not only takes considerably more time, but is also an uncertain method as it requires a lot of user experience to understand whether there is an actual leakage or not. Moreover, it takes considerable amount of knowledge of the cooling system to determine the source of leakage (whether the leakage source is the coolant tank or any other component of the cooling system other than the coolant tank). Furthermore, till the time the user becomes aware of the coolant leakage, the engine or the cooling system would have been damaged, perhaps irreversibly, thereby adding to the cost of repair and maintenance of the engine and the cooling system.
There is therefore felt a need for a system that indicates leakage from the cooling tank of the radiator.
OBJECTS
Some of the objects of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment herein satisfies, are as follows:
An object of the present disclosure is to provide a leak detection system for a radiator.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a leak detection system for a radiator, which immediately alerts a user about leakage of the coolant.

Yet another object of the present disclosure is to provide a leak detection system for a radiator, which helps in protecting the engine and other vehicular components from after-effects of coolant leakage.
Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description, which is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
SUMMARY
The present disclosure envisages a leak detection system for a radiator. The system comprises a coolant level sensor, a droplet detection sensor, a control unit, and an alerting unit.
The coolant level sensor is configured to sense the coolant level in the tank and generate a first signal.
The droplet detection sensor is configured to sense droplets on the radiator for generating a second signal.
The control unit is configured to receive the first signal and the second signal. The control unit is configured to compare the first signal with a predetermined threshold value, after receiving the second signal, to generate a third signal indicative of leakage from the tank.
The alerting unit is coupled to the control unit, for receiving the first signal and the third signal to indicate leakage of the coolant from the tank.
In an embodiment, the coolant level sensor is connected to a coolant tank of the radiator.
In another embodiment, the droplet detection sensor is attached to a base of the tank.
In another embodiment, the first signal includes a component of a sensed value based on the sensed level of the coolant in the tank.

In yet another embodiment, the second signal includes a component of presence of droplet on the base of the coolant tank when droplets of coolant leaking from the tank fall on the droplet detection sensor.
In a preferred embodiment, the control unit includes a repository storing the predetermined threshold value. The control unit further includes a processor coupled to the coolant level sensor, the droplet detection sensor and the repository. The processor is configured to receive the first signal, the second signal and the predetermined threshold value. The processor is configured to compare the sensed level value with a predetermined threshold value after receiving the second signal. The processor is further configured to generate the third signal if the sensed level value is less than the predetermined threshold value.
In another embodiment, the system is configured to generate a fourth signal if the sensed level value is less than the predetermined threshold value and the droplet detection sensor is not actuated.
In one embodiment, the alerting unit is configured to receive the fourth signal from the control unit, and is further configured to indicate malfunctioning of the cooling system other than the tank.
In another embodiment, the alerting unit includes a display unit configured to display the sensed level value and an indication showing leakage of the coolant iconically.
In yet another embodiment, the alerting unit includes an alarm coupled to the control unit. The alarm is configured to receive the third signal to emit an audible signal.
In an embodiment, the droplet detection sensor is configured to distinguish coolant droplets from water droplets. The droplet detection sensor is further to generate the second signal when coolant droplets are detected.

In another embodiment, the droplet detection sensor is an optical sensor. In yet another embodiment, the droplet detection sensor is a capacitive sensor.
In one embodiment, the coolant level sensor is a float type sensor.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING
A leak detection system, of the present disclosure, for a radiator will now be described with the help of the accompanying drawing, in which:
Figure 1 illustrates a schematic view of the system of the present disclosure.
LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

100 leak detection system
102 radiator
104 coolant level sensor
106 droplet detection sensor
108 control unit
110 alerting unit
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Embodiments, of the present disclosure, will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing.
Embodiments are provided so as to thoroughly and fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to the person skilled in the art. Numerous details, are set forth,

relating to specific components, and methods, to provide a complete understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to the person skilled in the art that the details provided in the embodiments should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, well-known processes, well-known apparatus structures, and well-known techniques are not described in detail.
The terminology used, in the present disclosure, is only for the purpose of explaining a particular embodiment and such terminology shall not be considered to limit the scope of the present disclosure. As used in the present disclosure, the forms "a," "an," and "the" may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly suggests otherwise. The terms "comprises," "comprising," "including," and "having," are open ended transitional phrases and therefore specify the presence of stated features, elements, modules, units and/or components, but do not forbid the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
When an element is referred to as being "mounted on," "engaged to," "connected to," or "coupled to" another element, it may be directly on, engaged, connected or coupled to the other element. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed elements.
The terms first, second, third, etc., should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure as the aforementioned terms may be only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another component, region, layer or section. Terms such as first, second, third etc., when used herein do not imply a specific sequence or order unless clearly suggested by the present disclosure.
Terms such as "inner," "outer," "beneath," "below," "lower," "above," "upper," and the like, may be used in the present disclosure to describe relationships between different elements as depicted from the figures.

It is essential to maintain the coolant levels in the coolant tank to prevent dire and even irreversible effects such as damage to various electronic components of the vehicle and potentially create a risk of electrocution or fire, or corrosion of the surrounding components, or even overheating of the engine.
The above mentioned effects occur due to leakage of the coolant which subsequently results in decrease of the coolant level in the tank. Conventionally, there does not exist any alerting system that indicates decrease in the coolant level. As a result, the vehicle user remains unaware of the depleting coolant levels, thereby gradually causing damage to the vehicle components. Further, the cooling system has to work harder than normal operating conditions to cool the engine, thereby unnecessarily causing heating of the metallic components. Further, the engine has to work relatively more. All these factors result in overheating of the engine, thereby affecting the overall efficiency of the engine.
Possible sources of leakage of the coolant are the coolant tank and the cooling circuit. Leakage from the coolant tank usually, occurs due to leaky tank cap or due to cracks formed in the coolant tank body, whereas leakage from the cooling circuit happens due to failure of the circuit.
Usual practices to know whether the coolant is leaking or not, requires the user to alight from the vehicle and visually inspect the radiator tank. Typical suspected inferences for inspecting the leakage include observance of fumes or residues of the coolant, observance of coolant puddle beneath the vehicle, or overheating of engine and the after-effects thereof. However, it takes a lot of time and user experience to understand whether there is an actual leakage or not. In addition to this, till the time the user becomes aware of the coolant leakage, the engine or the cooling system would have been damaged, thus adding to the cost of repair and maintenance of the engine and the cooling system.
There is therefore felt a need for a system that accurately predicts leakage of the coolant from the coolant tank of the radiator, without requiring the user to alight from the vehicle every time coolant leakage is suspected.

A leak detection system (100), of the present disclosure, for a radiator (102) will now be described in detail with reference to Figure 1.
The leak detection system (100) (hereinafter referred to as 'the system (100)') comprises a coolant level sensor (104), a droplet detection sensor (106), a control unit (108), and an alerting unit (110).
The coolant level sensor (104) is connected to the coolant tank. The coolant level sensor (104) is configured to sense the level of the coolant in the tank, and is further configured to continuously generate a first signal. In an embodiment, the first signal includes a component of a sensed value based on the sensed level of the coolant in the tank.
The droplet detection sensor (106) is attached to a base of the coolant tank so that when the coolant droplet(s) fall on the base of the coolant tank, the droplet detection sensor (106) is actuated to generate a second signal. In an embodiment, the second signal includes a component of presence of droplet on the base of the tank when droplets of coolant leaking from the tank fall on the droplet detection sensor (106).
The control unit (108) is configured to be in communication with the coolant level sensor (104) and the droplet detection sensor (106), and receives the first signal and the second signal from the coolant level sensor (104) and the droplet detection sensor (106). Particularly, the control unit (108) is first configured to receive the second signal. Thereafter, the control unit (108) is configured to compare the sensed level value, of the first signal, with a predetermined threshold value. The control unit (108) is further configured to generate a third signal indicative of leakage from the tank.
The alerting unit (110) is coupled to the control unit (108). The alerting unit (110) is configured to receive the first signal and the second signal from the control unit (108). The alerting unit (110) is further configured to indicate leakage of the coolant from the tank.

In another embodiment, the system (100) is configured to generate a fourth signal if the droplet detection sensor (106) is not actuated, and yet the sensed level value is less than the predetermined threshold value. The fourth signal indicates that there is a defect or a failure in the cooling system (100) other than the radiator tank, such as in the cooling circuit, and the user needs to take immediate measures.
However, if the droplet detection sensor (106) is actuated but the coolant level sensor (104) is not, it would imply that external droplets of the coolant or any other liquid have fallen on the droplet detection sensor (106). In such a case, the control unit (108) is configured to ignore the second signal. Nevertheless, if the droplet detection sensor (106) continues to show any activity beyond a predetermined time period, the control unit (108) will generate an alerting signal which may indicate that the coolant level sensor (104) is not functioning.
In a preferred embodiment, the control unit (108) includes a repository (not shown in figures) storing the predetermined threshold value. The control unit (108) further includes a processor (not shown in figures) coupled to the coolant level sensor (104), the droplet detection sensor (106) and the repository to receive the first signal, the second signal and the predetermined threshold value therefrom. The processor is configured to compare the sensed level value with a predetermined threshold value after receiving the second signal is received. The processor is further configured to generate the third signal if the sensed level value is less than the predetermined threshold value.
In one embodiment, the alerting unit (110) is configured to receive the fourth signal from the control unit (108). The alerting unit (110) is further configured to indicate malfunctioning of the cooling system other than the tank.
In one embodiment, the alerting unit (110) includes a display unit configured to display the sensed level value and an indication showing leakage of the coolant iconically.

In another embodiment, the alerting unit (110) includes an alarm (not shown in figures) coupled to the control unit (108). The alarm is configured to receive the third signal, and is further configured to emit an audible signal upon receiving the third signal to alert the user about the leakage. In yet another embodiment, the alarm is a buzzer or an in-vehicle assistance system.
In an embodiment, the droplet detection sensor (106) is configured to distinguish coolant droplets from water droplets or other liquid droplets. This way, the droplet detection sensor (106) will be actuated only when coolant droplets are sensed to enable generation of the second signal. If any other type of liquid droplets is sensed, the droplet detection sensor (106) will not generate any signal.
In one embodiment, the droplet detection sensor (106) is an optical sensor. In another embodiment, the droplet detection sensor (106) is an electric sensor. In still another embodiment, droplet detection sensor (106) is a capacitive sensor. In yet another embodiment, the droplet detection sensor (106) is an impedance sensor. The optical or the electrical sensor helps in detecting the type of droplet that has fallen thereon.
In one embodiment, the coolant level sensor (104) is a float type sensor. In another embodiment, the control unit (108) is the ECU of the vehicle.
The system (100), of the present disclosure, alerts the user of the leakage of the coolant in real time. As a result, the user can take prompt action, thereby fixing the leakage immediately and thus, avoiding major damages to the engine or its surrounding components. More specifically, the system (100) helps the user to save time and money required to detect and fix the damage that could be caused if the leakage of the coolant was not detected and indicated in time.
The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Individual components of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, are interchangeable. Such variations are not to be regarded as a

departure from the present disclosure, and all such modifications are considered to be within the scope of the present disclosure.
TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS
The present disclosure described hereinabove has several technical advantages including, but not limited to, the realization of a leak detection system for a radiator that:
• immediately alerts a user about leakage of the coolant;
• helps in protecting the engine and other vehicular components from after-effects of coolant leakage; and
• saves cost of repair and maintenance due to immediate measures being taken after receiving the alert.
The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiments in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been

described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.
he use of the expression "at least" or "at least one" suggests the use of one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as the use may be in the embodiment of the disclosure to achieve one or more of the desired objects or results.
Any discussion of documents, materials, devices, articles or the like that has been included in this specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the disclosure. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form a part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the disclosure as it existed anywhere before the priority date of this application.
While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the components and component parts of the preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that many embodiments can be made and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the disclosure. These and other changes in the preferred embodiment as well as other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the disclosure and not as a limitation.

CLAIM:

1. A leak detection system (100) for a radiator(102), said system (100)
comprising:
• a coolant level sensor (104) for sensing the coolant level in the tank and generating a first signal;
• a droplet detection sensor (106) for sensing droplets on the radiator (102) and generating a second signal;
• a control unit (108) for receiving said first signal and said second signal to compare said first signal with a predetermined threshold value after receiving said second signal, to generate a third signal indicative of leakage from the tank; and
• an alerting unit (110), coupled to said control unit (108), for receiving said first signal and said third signal to indicate leakage of the coolant from the tank.

2. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said coolant level sensor (104) is connected to a coolant tank of the radiator (102).
3. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said droplet detection sensor (106) is attached to a base of the tank.
4. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 2, wherein said first
signal includes a component of a sensed value based on the sensed level of
the coolant in the tank.
5. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 3, wherein said
second signal includes a component of presence of droplet on the base of
the tank when droplets of coolant leaking from the tank fall on said droplet
detection sensor (106).

6. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said
control unit (108) includes:
o a repository storing said predetermined threshold value; and
o a processor coupled to said coolant level sensor (104), said droplet detection sensor (106) and said repository to receive said first signal, said droplet detection signal and said predetermined threshold value therefrom, said processor configured to compare said sensed level value with a predetermined threshold value after receiving said second signal, and further configured to generate said third signal if said sensed level value is less than said predetermined threshold value.
7. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, which is configured to generate a fourth signal if said sensed level value is less than said predetermined threshold value and said droplet detection sensor (106) is not actuated.
8. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 3, wherein said alerting unit (110) is configured to receive said fourth signal from said control unit (108), and is further configured to indicate malfunctioning of the cooling system other than the tank.
9. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said alerting unit (110) includes a display unit configured to display said sensed level value and an indication showing leakage of the coolant iconically.
10. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said alerting unit (110) includes an alarm coupled to said control unit (108), said alarm configured to receive said third signal to emit an audible signal.
11. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said droplet detection sensor (106) is configured to distinguish coolant droplets

from water droplets, and generate said second signal when coolant droplets are detected.
12. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 6, wherein said droplet detection sensor (106) is an optical sensor.
13. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 6, wherein said droplet detection sensor (106) is a capacitive sensor.
14. The leak detection system (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said coolant level sensor (104) is a float type sensor.