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Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems play a crucial role in our day-to-day activities. With rise in global warming, leading to climate change, HVAC unit is the need of the hour. With average temperatures on the rise, it is quite imperative that the unit provides better thermal comfort to the passengers. Off-road vehicles like tractor, is also no exclusion. Tractor drivers have to experience adverse weather conditions out in the open field. Thus it is quite fundamental that sufficient airflow reaches every point inside the driver cabin, ensuring proper cool-down. To ensure proper distribution of airflow inside the cabin, optimization of HVAC unit needs to be properly carried out. The present study shows how an HVAC of an off-road vehicle is properly optimized with the help of Computational Fluid Dynamics. STAR-CCM+ v2021.2.1 is used as solver for the simulation.

Indian Railways, often described as the “transport lifeline of the nation”, is the fourth largest railway network in the world, from suburbs to urban transit, the Indian rail network covers the length and breadth of the country. To make the journeys easier and memorable it is very much important to provide adequate comfort and easy access to every facilitates. For better comfort inside the coach as well as in the drivers’ cabin, air-conditioning system has to be quite effective and energy efficient. While it is too expensive to go with prototypes at the initial stage, numerical simulation comes very handy in helping and optimizing the unit and come out with viable design concept within very short time. The present study provides a methodology for the numerical simulation of a drivers’ cabin AC to determine the volumetric airflow rate. The unit is designed for the drivers’ cabin and it is mounted on roof.

The aim of this paper is to analyze Train Driver Cabin AC kit to improve performance of Rail AC unit. First CFD analysis has been carried out on the existing design to find the airflow on the condenser side. Based on the analysis result, design modification has been done to improve the air flow on the condenser side and thereby improving the cooling capacity of the unit. CAE analysis has been carried out to strengthen mount brackets of condenser fan. With the design changes, there is significant improvement found on the structural integrity. Modal frequency improved and dynamic stress been reduced. Based on final modified design, proto was developed, tested and found OK which further verified with CAE/CFD results.CAE analysis has been carried out using ABAQUS/Hypermesh software and CFD using STAR CCM+.

Less weight, structural integrity, good dynamic behavior, material selection, performance & energy consumption are important parameters while designing A/C components for EV applications. Structural integrity and dynamic behavior of these components is predicted by conducting dynamic analysis of A/C unit under standard vibration load test conditions. Material selection is another important point while designing A/C and simulation helps designer for proper material selection at initial design stage. Achieving required cooling capacity with less compressor power is another important factor while designing A/C unit and this is done by proper design changes on condenser and evaporator side with proper compressor selection. For this, CFD analysis helps to predict the air flow accurately with the given design parameters.

Global climate change is a major concern worldwide and most refrigerants which are being used today are Hydro-fluorocarbon (HFC), which are potent green house gases. With the rising popularity of electric vehicles, there has been an increased demand for effective and efficient cooling system, not only for cabin cooling for bus but for battery pack Thermal Management Systems also. This has led to an increase in the refrigerant amount and it is even more in case of commercial electric vehicle. Alternate refrigerant with low global warming potential like R1234yf (GWP = 4), Co2 (GWP = 1), R- 152a (GWP = 124) emerged to cater this challenge; But due to their high cost, risk regarding flammability and relative performance, some researchers found secondary loop cooling system as the next possible solution.