Cool Down Analysis of an HVAC System Using Multi-Zone Cabin Approach

Cool down of a passenger vehicle cabin is a preferred method to test the efficiency of the vehicle HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system. The intended primary objective of a passenger vehicle air conditioning system is to ensure thermal comfort to the passengers seated inside at all prevailing conditions. Presently 1-D analysis plays a major role in determining the conformation of the selected system to achieve the desired results. Virtual analysis thus saves a lot of time and effort in predicting the system performance in the initial development phase of the vehicle HVAC systems. A variety of parameters play an important role in achieving the above thermal comfort. Thermal comfort is measured using the Human comfort sensor for all the passengers seated inside. In the current scenario the modelling approach is done as per the vehicle drive condition in order to compare the same with the test results to make 1D model more robust for HVAC system performance predictions. Project focus is on the prediction of HVAC panel duct out and cabin air temperatures by discretizing the cabin into multiple zones. This enables the prediction of the temperature of each zone individually and measures the human comfort index for each zone. The simulation is performed through LMS-AMESim tool.