Search Results

Simulation of passenger compartment climatic conditions is becoming increasingly important as a complement to wind tunnel and field testing to help achieve improved windshield de-icing performance while reducing vehicle development time and cost. Windshield de-icing simulation involves not only geometric complexity but also interactions between airflow and two modes of heat transfer, namely, heat conduction and convection. In the present study, CFD is employed to numerically simulate windshield de-icing performance. The general-purpose CFD package Fluent is used to perform the numerical simulation. Two CFD analysis methodologies, windshield de-icing pattern analysis and windshield de-icing process analysis, are discussed. The validation is presented by comparing the CFD predicted windshield de-icing patterns with windshield de-icing tunnel test. The present full 3-D CFD windshield de-icing simulations demonstrated reasonable agreement with available tunnel test data.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis has been used extensively in the design of automotive HVAC systems with the objective of optimize system performance and shorten the product development time. In this paper, the three dimensional Navier-Stokes code STAR-CD was used to determine the overall system pressure drop and velocity field, as well as, individual component pressure and velocity field. In addition, a better insight into the flow characteristics of the HVAC system has been obtained through the CFD analysis. Thermal performance of the HVAC module can also be achieved through the use of user supplied subroutines, which model the thermal effects of heat exchangers. In this paper, two specific systems were analyzed. The first system consisted of a simplified plentum, multiple inlet designs, blower, and evaporator core. The main focus of this analysis was placed on inlet design.