<div>A vehicle’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system plays a dual role in passenger thermal comfort and safety. The functional aspects of safety include the front windshield demist and deicing feature of the system. The thin-film mist is a result of condensation of water vapor on the inner side of the windshield, which occurs at low ambient temperatures or high humidity. This mist deposition depends on the air saturation pressure at the front windshield. Indian regulation AIS-084 defines the experimental setup for testing, which encompasses both the mist deposition and its subsequent demist process. This regulation mandates testing, which occurs at a later stage of product development. This performance validation can be performed using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics approach.</div> <div>Current work summarizes the simulation process for both the mist deposition and the subsequent demisting phenomenon. The complexity of the flow physics is captured via the transient multiphase fluid flow phenomenon subjected to buoyancy effects. This phenomenon is simulated using the Eulerian wall film approach. The wall film deposition of the mist is modeled via species transport. Further, the near-wall thermal effects of surface conduction and heat transfer are simulated by modeling shell conduction layers. Vapor diffusion and relative humidity inside the cabin are modeled using a user-defined function. The process correlation is achieved for two categories of vehicles to establish the process efficacy and robustness. Moving ahead, a design of experiments (DOE) is planned to mitigate the need to simulate mist deposition. The DOE is planning to incorporate deviations in both the input airflow conditions and the imposed ambient conditions. The results from DOE point toward factors that might cause deviations in simulation results with respect to the test. Importantly, the study concludes that the uniform initial thickness assumption of the mist layer can be used for subsequent demist analysis.</div>
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