Increase in the atmospheric temperature across the globe during summer, increases the heat load in the vehicle cabin, creating a huge thermal discomfort for the passengers. There are two scenarios where these adverse conditions can be a problem during the summer. Firstly, while driving the vehicle in traffic conditions and secondly, when the vehicle is parked under the sun. When the vehicle is exposed to the radiation from the sun for a period, the cabin temperature can reach alarming levels, which may have serious discomfort and health effects on the people entering the vehicle. Although there are options of remote switching on of air conditioners, they are restricted to vehicles having an automatic transmission and availability of the mobile network. So, it is important to explore the possible options which can be used for restricting the external heat load to the cabin.
Considering the different parts of a vehicle cabin, glasses occupy the majority of the portion which is exposed to the sunlight and transmits heat energy directly into the cabin, which in turn is absorbed by different materials resulting in increase of temperature inside the cabin. The study involves collecting various types of glasses available and using them at different locations to study its impact on the cabin temperature when the vehicle is soaked for a particular duration of time in same atmospheric conditions. This study was performed using the one dimensional (1D) simulation software Simcenter Amesim®. The cabin of the selected vehicle was built considering different components, its properties, etc., Properties of glasses like transmittance, absorbance, emissivity, etc. were used as the input to this study. A detailed analysis of the results with the usage of different types of glasses showed the improvement of each combination of glasses on the average cabin temperature value after the stipulated duration of soaking at same environmental conditions. A cooldown simulation with the soaked cabin showed that the cabin can be cooled to a comfortable temperature at a faster rate. These study results can be used for reducing the cabin soak temperature at different customer touch points, to provide a relatively better comfort for the people entering a vehicle after soaking and also to improve the air conditioning performance and vehicle fuel efficiency.