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Investigation on the flow characteristics inside an automotive HVAC system with varying ventilation mode

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Abstract

The ventilation flow in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) module of a passenger car was investigated experimentally. Three different ventilation modes with varying temperature mode were tested to study the effect of ventilation mode on the velocity field inside the HVAC module. For each mode, more than 450 instantaneous velocity fields were measured using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) velocity field measurement technique. The instantaneous velocity fields were ensemble averaged to obtain the spatial distribution of mean velocity and spanwise vorticity. The present work highlights the usefulness of the PIV technique for the analysis of the flow inside an HVAC module. The experimental results can be used not only to understand and improve the ventilation flow of an HVAC module but also to validate numerical predictions.

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Jong Hoon Kang: He received his MSc and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from POSTECH (Pohang Science and Technology) in 2004 and 2009, respectively. Now he is working in POSCO. His research interests are PSP technique, flow visualization, applications of PIV/PTV velocity field techniques, bluff-body aerodynamics, ventilation flow, and wind engineering.

Sang Joon Lee: He received his MSc and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Tech.) in 1982 and 1986, respectively. In 1986 he worked as a senior researcher at KIMM. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH as an Assistant Professor in 1987, and in 1999 he became a full professor. His research interests include quantitative flow visualization (PIV, PTV, LIF, X-ray imaging and Holography), experimental fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, bio-fluid flows, microfluidics, and flow control.

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Kang, J.H., Lee, S.J. Investigation on the flow characteristics inside an automotive HVAC system with varying ventilation mode. J Vis 12, 375–382 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03181880

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03181880

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