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A numerical study of an automotive windshield ice-clearing was successfully accomplished. The windshield clearing process is a 3D transient, multi-medium, multi-phase heat exchange phenomenon in connection with the air flow distribution in the passenger compartment. The transient windshield clearing analysis employed conjugate heat transfer and enthalpy methods to simulate the ice-melting pattern and the melting duration. This study is a joint project between Chrysler Corporation and CFD Research Corporation. A Chrysler prototype windshield and test vehicle were utilized. The meshing was done using ICEM/CFD package by Control Data Corporation (CDC). A seamless data transfer was achieved by developing an interface between ICEM/CFD and CFD-ACE. The analysis of air flow, conjugate heat transfer, and weather clearing was performed using the multi-domain CFD-ACE code developed by CFD Research Corporation (CFDRC).

This study is a joint development project between Chrysler Corporation and CFD Research Corporation. The objective of this investigation was to develop a 3D computational flow and heat transfer model for a vehicle windshield de-icing process. The windshield clearing process is a 3D transient, multi-medium, multi-phase heat exchange phenomenon in connection with the air flow distribution in the passenger compartment. The transient windshield de-icing analysis employed conjugate heat transfer methodology and enthalpy method to simulate the velocity distribution near the windshield inside surface, and the time progression of ice-melting pattern on the windshield outside surface. The comparison between the computed results and measured data showed very reasonable agreement, which demonstrated that the developed analysis tool is capable of simulating the vehicle cold room de-icing tests.