Large-Scale Measurements Using Robotic Volumetric LPT With Shake-The-Box Inside A Vehicle Cabin: Influence Of Different Fan Speeds On The Flow Topology

Abstract

In this work, the flow topology inside a passenger car cabin for different fan speeds of the heat, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is investigated using robotic volumetric Lagrangian Particle Tracking (LPT). The coaxial volumetric velocimeter (CVV), also called MiniShaker, in combination with a robotic arm enables the measurement of the complete passenger's side. In total 37 CVV perspectives (sub-volumes) were measured. At each position 3000 double frame images were recorded. The interior was painted black and the mannequin was wrapped with black aluminum foil in order to keep reflections at a low level. Experimental results for three different fan speeds using helium-filled soap bubbles (HFSB) as tracers and Shake-the-Box (StB) algorithm for the three-dimensional LPT data analyses show that the flow topology changes significantly with increasing fan speeds. At higher fan speeds the flow fields show the highest complexity with four vortices.