Abstract
With the goal of increasing energy efficiency and passenger comfort in an automobile cabin, we developed a regional air-conditioning design to control cold air in specific regions, and an air management strategy that can keep air circulation when the car engine cuts out. According to computational simulations, an air velocity of 2 m/s was adopted, which could form an independent flow field space in the cabin with a temperature gap of 7 °C according to the user’s needs. The designed regional air-conditioning and circulation system could create independent flow field spaces with temperature differences. Inlet air volume demand was also reduced by 60% and blower power by 53 W. In addition, the cabin ventilation system led air exchange rate reached 89% per hour. In 20 min of exposure under sun, the system could lower the cabin temperature by 12.3 °C.
Highlights
Air-conditioning (AC) system performance is one of the major concerns related to automobile energy consumption [1]
As the length of AC operating time increases and the flow field in the cabin reaches stability, such methods cannot change the temperature of each zone in an energy-saving manner, because this results in a greater temperature difference in the inlet, which causes unnecessary energy waste
Computer-aided design (CAD) and computation fluid dynamics (CFD) were adopted during numerical simulation, of which the results were applied to the design of cabin flow field
Summary
Air-conditioning (AC) system performance is one of the major concerns related to automobile energy consumption [1]. Several studies reported the development of solar-powered ventilation systems [9,10] This system can only provide power to the blower to intake air from outside; it does not conduct reasonable control over the airflow in the cabin and cannot effectively remove heat. Wang et al [13] proposed the concept of localized cooling, and they used an electronic variable compressor, thermal expansion valve, brushless blower, and dummies to experiment on thermal comfort Their results revealed that the effectiveness of localized cooling was superior to existing HVAC systems, most inlets generated large airflow volumes that caused a discomforting sensation for those nearby. When the vehicle is idling, the inlets and outlets inside the cabin were adjusted to reduce the heat load generated by high-temperature sunlight or atmosphere exposure, thereby preventing vehicle occupants from experiencing fatal heatstroke
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