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The increasing competitiveness in the automobile market has resulted in the incorporation by the manufacturers of certain features in newer cars that are deemed highly desirable by the customer. Among such features that require improvement is the thermal comfort of passengers' within the cabin. Thermal comfort is in increasing demand from motorists bound to cover more mileage driving cars than ever before. As a result, car makers are striving for improved climate conditions inside the car to meet passenger demand for more comfortable trips. The need to improve the climatic comfort within the vehicle is critical not only to passengers' comfort but also to their safety. However, to make progress in this area, a good understanding of the airflow behaviour within the vehicle interior is required. This paper, reports on a novel idea of control the air movement within the cabin by forcibly removing the air from strategically positioned vents.

The air flow distribution in a car from the panel registers to the driver or passenger is largely influenced by the register design. We have undertaken a study using both experimental and numerical techniques to understand the parameters that influence register performance. In particular, we set out to identify the register characteristics that have the greatest effect on the size of the plume. The idea is that once an occupant has reached thermal comfort, particularly after cool down, the less direct impingement of air the occupant feels, the greater his/her comfort.