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Virtual simulation of passenger compartment climatic conditions is becoming increasingly important as a complement to the wind tunnel and field testing to achieve improved thermal comfort while reducing the vehicle development time and cost. The vehicle cabin is subjected to various thermal environments. At the same time many of the design parameters are dependent on each other and the relationship among them is quite complex. Therefore, an experimental parametric study is very time consuming. The present 3-D RadTherm analysis coupled with the 3-D CFD flow field analysis takes into account the geometrical configuration of the passenger compartment which includes glazing surfaces and pertinent physical and thermal properties of the enclosure with particular emphasis on the glass properties. Virtual Thermal Comfort Engineering (VTCE) is a process that takes into account the cabin thermal environment coupled with a human physiology model.

Traditional vehicle air conditioning systems condition the entire cabin to a comfortable range of temperature and humidity regardless of the number of passengers in the vehicle. The A/C system is designed to have enough capacity to provide comfort for transient periods when cooling down a soaked car. Similarly for heating, the entire cabin is typically warmed up to achieve comfort. Localized heating and cooling, on the other hand, focuses on keeping the passenger comfortable by forming a micro climate around the passenger. This is more energy efficient since the system only needs to cool the person instead of the entire cabin space and cabin thermal mass. It also provides accelerated comfort for the passenger during the cooling down periods of soaked cars. Additionally, the system adapts to the number of passengers in the car, so as to not purposely condition areas that are not occupied.

As battery temperature greatly affects performance, safety, and life of Li-ion batteries in plug-in and electric vehicles under various driving conditions, automakers and battery suppliers are paying increased attention to thermal management for Li-ion batteries in order to reduce the high temperature excursions that could decrease the life and reduce safety of Li-Ion batteries. Currently, the lack of fundamental understanding of the heat generation mechanism due to complex electrochemical phenomena prohibits accurate estimation of the heat generation within Li-ion cells under various operating conditions. Heat from Li-ion batteries can be generated from resistive dissipation, the entropy of the cell reaction, heat of mixing, and other side chemical reactions. Each of these can be a significant source of heat under a range of circumstances.

Three-dimensional flow and temperature distributions in a passenger compartment are very important for evaluating passenger comfort and improving A/C system design. In the present study, the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the energy transport equation were solved, by both quasi-steady and full transient approaches, to simulate a passenger compartment cooling process. By comparing the predictions with experimental results for a simplified GM-10 passenger compartment, the accuracy of the simulation was assessed. Throughout the 800-second period, good agreement was observed between the measured breath-level air temperatures and the prediction of the transient simulation. The quasi-steady simulation underpredicted air temperatures at the very early stage of the cooling process. However, after 200 seconds of cool down, the quasi-steady simulation predicted air temperatures equally as well as the full transient simulation.

Spot, or distributed, cooling and heating is an energy efficient way of delivering comfort to an occupant in the car. This paper describes an approach to distributed cooling in the vehicle. A two passenger CFD model of an SUV cabin was developed to obtain the solar and convective thermal loads on the vehicle, characterize the interior thermal environment and accurately evaluate the fluid-thermal environment around the occupants. The present paper focuses on the design and CFD analysis of the energy efficient HVAC system with spot cooling. The CFD model was validated with wind tunnel data for its overall accuracy. A baseline system with conventional HVAC air was first analyzed at mid and high ambient conditions. The airflow and cooling delivered to the driver and the passenger was calculated. Subsequently, spot cooling was analyzed in conjunction with a much lower conventional HVAC airflow.

Energy efficient HVAC system is becoming increasingly important as the higher Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are required for future vehicle products. The present study is a preliminary investigation which addresses an energy efficient HVAC system without compromising occupant thermal comfort. The vehicle cabin is subjected to various thermal environments. Thermal analysis of a passenger compartment involves not only the geometric complexity but also strong interactions between airflows and three modes of heat transfer, namely, heat conduction, convection, and thermal radiation. The present full 3-D CFD analysis takes into account the geometrical configuration of the passenger compartment including glazing surfaces and pertinent physical and thermal properties of the enclosure with particular emphasis on glass properties. Many of the design parameters related with the climate control system are dependent on each other and the relationship among them is quite complex..

Delphi Harrison Thermal System's comfort model can be used to predict the local thermal comfort level of an occupant in the highly non-uniform thermal environment of a vehicle cabin. This model is based on the concept of Equivalent Homogeneous Temperature (EHT) to assess the local comfort of 16 body segments as a function of air temperature, surrounding surface temperatures, air velocity, humidity, direct solar flux, as well as the level of activity and clothing type of each individual. Although EHT has been accepted by some European automotive industries, OEMs in North America have their own comfort scales. In the present study, we developed a model to correlate our EHT scale to an OEM's comfort scale. The current comfort model based on EHT produced excellent agreements with human subject data based on an OEM's comfort scale for both summer and winter rides.

An ultrasonic air temperature sensor, intended to help improve automatic climate control (ACC), has been demonstrated in a vehicle. Ideally, ACC should be based on inputs correlated with thermal comfort. Current ACC systems do not measure the air temperature best correlated to thermal comfort - at breath level in front of an occupant. This limits the thermal comfort that ACC can provide under transient conditions. An ultrasonic sensor measures the bulk air temperature, is transparent to the driver, and can use commercially available components. In a proof-of-concept test, we monitored the thermal transients in a vehicle during cool-down after a hot soak and also during warm-up after a cold soak. The ultrasonic path was along the roof console. The ultrasonic temperature always agreed to ±1 °C with the air temperature measured by a thermocouple at the midpoint of the ultrasonic path.

The major challenge in diesel NOx aftertreatment systems using NOx adsorbers is their susceptibility to sulfur poisoning. A new computational model has been developed for the thermal management of NOx adsorber desulfation and describes the exothermic reaction mechanisms on the catalyst surface in the diesel NOx trap. Sulfur, which is present in diesel fuel, adsorbs as sulfates and accumulates at the same adsorption sites as NOx, therefore inhibiting the ability of the catalyst to adsorb NOx. Typically, a high surface temperature above 650 °C is required to release sulfur rapidly from the catalyst [1]. Since the peak temperatures of light-duty diesel engine exhaust are usually below 400 °C, additional heat is required to remove the sulfur. This report describes a new mathematical model that employs Navier-Stokes equations coupled with species transportation equations and exothermic chemical reactions.

Simulation of cabin climatic conditions is becoming increasingly important as a complement to wind tunnel and field testing to help achieve improved thermal comfort while reducing vehicle development time and cost. Delphi developed the Virtual Thermal Comfort Engineering (VTCE) process to explore different climate control strategies as they relate to occupant thermal comfort in a quick and inexpensive manner. The comfort model has the ability to predict the local thermal comfort level of an occupant in a highly non-uniform thermal environment as a function of air temperature, surrounding surface temperatures, air velocity, humidity, direct solar flux, as well as the level of activity and clothing type of each individual.

Thermal cabin comfort is the largest consumer of battery energy second only to propulsion in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV’s). Accurate prediction of thermal comfort in the vehicle cabin with fast turnaround times will allow engineers to study the impact of various thermal comfort technologies and develop energy efficient Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. In this study a novel data-driven model based on physics-guided Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy) method was developed to predict Equivalent Homogeneous Temperature (EHT), Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) and cabin air temperature under transient conditions and drive cycles. EHT is a recognized measure of the total heat loss from the human body that can be used to characterize highly non-uniform thermal environments such as a vehicle cabin. The SINDy model was trained on drive cycle data from Climatic Wind Tunnel (CWT) for a representative Battery Electric Vehicle.

Simulation of passenger compartment climatic conditions is becoming increasingly important as a complement to wind tunnel and field testing to help achieve improved thermal comfort while reducing vehicle development time and cost. Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems has collaborated with the University of California, Berkeley to develop the capability of predicting occupant thermal comfort to support automotive climate control systems. At the core of this Virtual Thermal Comfort Engineering (VTCE) technique is a model of the human thermal regulatory system based on Stolwijk’s model but with several enhancements. Our model uses 16 body segments and each segment is modeled as four body layers (core, muscle, fat, and skin tissues) and a clothing layer.

Simulation of passenger compartment climatic conditions is becoming increasingly important as a complement to wind tunnel and field testing to help achieve improved thermal comfort while reducing vehicle development time and cost. Thermal analysis of a passenger compartment involves not only geometric complexity but also strong interactions between airflow and three modes of heat transfer, namely, heat conduction, convection, and thermal radiation. The present full 3-D CFD analysis takes into account the geometrical configuration of the passenger compartment including glazing surfaces and pertinent physical and thermal properties of the enclosure with particular emphasis on glass properties. This CFD analysis is coupled with a thermal comfort model in the Virtual Thermal Comfort Engineering (VTCE) Process that was described in [1].