Development of a Virtual Thermal Manikin to Predict Thermal Sensation in Automobiles

2012-01-0315

04/16/2012

Event
SAE 2012 World Congress & Exhibition
Authors Abstract
Content
In today's highly competitive marketplace and ever-shrinking vehicle development cycle, automotive HVAC engineers are constantly challenged to develop systems that deliver adequate thermal comfort at lower cost and higher fuel-efficiency. However, in the absence of a reliable predictive tool that is capable of quantifying thermal comfort early in the vehicle development program, OEMs employ expensive and time-consuming human subject test rides to assess HVAC system's performance. In order to address this issue, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of a virtual thermal manikin in a passenger cabin is developed in this study. The model is capable of providing thermal sensations, as experienced by humans, under any arbitrary thermal environment. Additionally, the model can provide sensitivity of various critical parameters, such as solar load, A/C discharge outlet air flow-rate and temperature, A/C outlet locations, various HVAC modes etc., to thermal sensation. Comparison of the proposed model's simulated results with the actual test data show good correlation.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/2012-01-0315
Pages
15
Citation
Kaushik, S., Han, T., and Chen, K., "Development of a Virtual Thermal Manikin to Predict Thermal Sensation in Automobiles," SAE Technical Paper 2012-01-0315, 2012, https://doi.org/10.4271/2012-01-0315.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Apr 16, 2012
Product Code
2012-01-0315
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English