Abstract
Many cars are equipped with the same Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system with different outlet flow rates, shapes, sizes and positions etc. according to modern automobile modular and platform design strategies. Consequently, the aerodynamic design of airflow duct has become an important issue of the automobile HVAC system. In this research, the HVAC defrosting airflow canal of a passenger car was designed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. The HVAC defrosting outlets’ sizes and positions were considered as design variables. The mass flow rate distribution and the cabin flow structure were considered as design targets. The steady Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) method was adopted because it is an efficient way to help select possible good designs in the early stage of new product development without time consuming and huge computational cost of the unsteady methods. Various duct design configurations were evaluated by analyzing the defrosting mass flow distribution of each flow outlet and by visualizing the flow structure near the windshield and the front left side window. The CFD results showed that the total area of the outlets near the rain wipers was a decisive parameter for mass flow distribution in this duct design. The defrosting flow structure near side windows were difficult to be improved only by enlarging the area of the outlet. The effective flow structure was realized by choosing proper angles of the vanes skirt of the outlets to defrost the windshield region. The overall performance of HVAC system, such as defrosting time and cabin temperature distribution, could not only be predicted based on the results of the steady RANS method. It was shown that the important parameters including the mass flow distribution of each outlets and the flow structure near the windshield and side windows could be quickly evaluated from the steady state CFD simulation results in the early design stage.
F2012-E12-048
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Srinivasan RC, Karim NJ (2004) A numerically-based parametric study of heat transfer off an inclined surface subject to impinging airflow [J]. Int J Heat Mass Transf 23(47):4967–4977
Roy S, Karim NJ, Patel P, AbdulNour B (2002) An experimental and numerical study of heat transfer off an inclined surface subject to an impinging airflow [J]. Int J Heat Mass Transf 8(45):1615–1629
Roy S, Kumar H, Anderson R (2005) Efficient defrosting of an inclined flat surface [J]. Int J Heat Mass Transf 12(48):2613–2624
Menter FR, Kuntz M, Langtry R (2003) Ten years of industrial experience with the SST turbulence model [M]. Turbul Heat Mass Transf 4 (Begell House, Inc.)
Menter FR (1993) Zonal two equation k-omega turbulence models for aerodynamic flows [C]. In: AIAA 24th fluid dynamics conference, 6–9 July 1993, Orlando, Florida, AIAA-93-2906
Acknowledgments
Thanks for the supports from National Science Foundation of China (50905070), Development Programs in Science and Technology of Jilin Province (20100175, 20110724), Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Automobile Dynamics Simulation and Basic Science and Research foundation of Jilin University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Yang, B., Huang, Ln., Ren, F. (2013). Aerodynamic Design and Numerical Simulation Analysis of a Passenger Car’s Defrosting Duct. In: Proceedings of the FISITA 2012 World Automotive Congress. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 196. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33738-3_43
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33738-3_43
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-33737-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-33738-3
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)