Prediction of Water Film Thickness Due to Condensation over Instrument Cluster Based on Eulerian Wall Film Approach of Computational Fluid Dynamics

This paper investigates the condensation within a two-wheeler instrument cluster in different weather conditions. Instrument cluster have high heating components within its assembly particularly over Printed Circuit Board (PCB) which leads to formation of condensation. Air breathers are important component that can be utilized to reduce the condensation in the cluster. Location and orientation of air breather and air vents plays the vital role in the air flow through the instrument cluster. In this study, number of breathers, their location and orientation are optimized to reduce the condensation or film thickness on the crystal (transparent body) of cluster. Transient Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based Eulerian Wall Film approach is utilized to investigate the physics administering the condensation phenomenon in the instrument cluster. Experimental tests are conducted to investigate condensation phenomenon actually occurring in the model. Similar results are found by employing the numerical modelling and hence the numerical approach is validated. The validated numerical approach is employed to mitigate the present design by optimizing the breather locations and air vents. The optimized model predicts enhanced properties by reducing the condensation phenomena in the cluster. The algorithm employed to reduce the condensation in clusters can be further utilized for other complex designs.