Mini-Van Headliner-Based Air Distribution System

Production of vehicles incorporating supply of conditioned air only in the front makes it difficult for the rear and middle passengers to achieve thermal comfort. This discomfort is only likely to increase as the mini-vans are extended in future models. A proposed solution consists of utilizing a new headliner technology to fabricate air distribution channels directly in the headliner thus eliminating need for any blow molded ductwork. As a part of the integrated headliner project, flow information was developed for air distribution through headliner and also a method of determining it's distribution effectiveness. Details of the work are described in this paper.