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.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adrian, R. J., Particle-imaging Techniques for Experimental Fluid Mechanics, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 23 (1991), 261–304.
Aroussi, A., Abdul Ghani S. A. A. and Rice, E., PIV Measurement and Numerical Simulation of Airflow Field in a Road Vehicle HVAC Cowl Box, SAE technical paper, (2001), 2001-01-0294.
Bennett, L., Dixon, C. W. S. and Watkins, S., Modeling and Testing of Air Flow in a HVAC Module, SAE technical paper, (2002), 2002-01-0506.
Cho, N. H. and Kim, M. R., Numerical Investigation of Fluid Flow in an Automotive HVAC Module, SAE paper, (1997), 971778.
Currie, J., Numerical Simulation of the Flow in a Passenger Compartment and Evaluation of the Thermal Comfort of the Occupants, SAE paper, (1997), 970529.
Hirota, M., Asano, H., Nakayama, H., Asano, T. and Hirayama, S., Three-dimensional Structures of Turbulent Flow in Mixing T-junction, JSME International Journal Series B, 49 (2006), 1070–1077.
Ishihara, Y., Shibata, M., Hoshino, H., Hara, J. and Kamemoto, K., Analysis of Interior Airflow in a Full-scale Passenger Compartment Model Using a Laser-light-sheet Methods, SAE paper, (1992), 920206.
James, L., Ken, H. and Karim, N., Design and Development of a Cylindrical HVAC Case, SAE technical paper, (2004), 2004-01-1385.
Jang, Y. I. and Lee, S. J., Visualization of Turbulent Flow around a Sphere at Subcritical Reynolds Numbers, Journal of Visualization, 10 (2007), 359–366.
Kitada, M., Asano, H., Kanbara, M. and Akaike, S., Development of Automotive Air-conditioning System Basic Performance Simulator: CFD Technique Development, JSAE Review, 21 (2001), 91–96.
Lin, C. H., Experimental and Computational Studies of Flow in a Simplified HVAC Duct, International Journal of Vehicle Design, 15 (1994), 147–165.
Shojaee, M. H., Tehrani, F. P. H., Noorpoor, A. R. and Adili, M. R., Analysis of Vehicle Passenger Compartment HVAC Using Simulation, SAE technical paper, (2004), 2004-01-1505.
Wan, J. W. and Kooi, J., Influence of the Position of Supply and Exhaust Opening on Comfort in a Passenger Vehicle, International Journal of Vehicle Design, 12 (1991), 588–597.
Yoon, J. H. and Lee, S. J., Velocity Field Measurements of Ventilation Flow in a Vehicle Interior, International Journal of Vehicle Design, 31 (2003), 96–111.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
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.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
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
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03181880