Investigation of Thermal and Fluid Characteristics in Automotive Headlights

Headlights manufactures in the automotive industry make a large usage of polymers and plastic materials addressing important issues such as thermal stress control and water condensation on the inner surfaces of the headlamp as important factors for headlight design.

In this paper, an innovative simulation methodology to calculate thermal distribution in automotive headlights is illustrated. With this method radiation is accurately calculated by means of a dedicated software whereas conductive and convective heat transfer is calculated by means of a general CFD code.

A condensation model has also been developed and utilized with the CFD code to investigate the effect of forced convection flow through the headlight vents on water film evaporation.

CFD results have been validated against measured headlight wall temperatures and flow velocities showing an encouraging degree of agreement.