Due to the growing need to reduce the development time of new products, a tendency to rationalize field tests through test benches, in shorter times and with lower costs, has been noted in recent years.
During the 90's, such a tendency has generated, in the automotive industry, a great effort to substitute classic field tests, which until recently represented 70% of the development work, for bench tests, with benches well “calibrated” in relation to the traditional methodology. The present work intends to show the development of a test bench to simulate solar radiation and relative humidity effects upon parts and interior lining materials of truck cabins. The traditional test was carried out exposing the cabin to weather conditions in predetermined locations, or in a hot-house, monitoring the cabin interior for temperature and relative humidity variations.
Our development allowed the acceleration of such tests, under laboratory conditions, with the simulation of a radiation thermal charge from 700 to 1000 W/m2, incident upon the cabin (equivalent to the charge upon a cabin operating in central day hours in tropical zones), with controlled insuflation of humid vapor to maintain the relative humidity on predetermined levels. The criteria were established to accelerate the test, under extreme conditions, for a longer time than in actual applications, reducing the time of low incidence radiation.