A Dynamic Computer-Aided Engineering Model for Automobile Climate Control System Simulation and Application Part II: Passenger Compartment Simulation and Applications

A Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) model for automobile climate control system is presented to provide engineers with an cost effective analysis tool for designing, developing, and optimizing the vehicle interior climate. It is the objective of this paper to develop a mathematical model which predicts the lumped temperature and lumped humidity variations inside the passenger compartment under design and operating conditions.

The transient nature of the passenger cabin temperature, average interior mass temperature, and humidity are modeled using three coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations based on mass and energy balances. These equations are then solved by a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method with adaptive step size control.

The methodology was validated by comparing the simulation results with experimental data, and it was also applied to study the system performance by varying vehicle design characteristics (glass type) and operating conditions (A/C air flow rate), which can further demonstrate the usefulness and the flexibility of this CAE model.