Abstract
The automobile has become the most popular means of transportation and a symbol of personal freedom. Car manufacturing industry is in continuous development and innovation, so that branches some time ago were used only in the aviation industry, have now become part of the design process of vehicles. The increasing market demand for highly effective and efficient HVAC systems for automotive applications has determined a great impulse in the research and development of innovative methods and instruments to predict passengers thermal sensation. Thus, the use of CFD in car industry helped to obtain the aerodynamic car bodies, to the engine optimization and the air speed study out of vents in the passenger compartment. One tool that is used often is the numerical simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. Using a good computational methodology, the obtained results are reliable and the time needed to obtain them is shorter than the experimental research. Also, another advantage of the numerical simulations is the parametric studies possibility. They can be used to evaluate different designs and the changes that are produced by slight modifications, without the need of the physical model. In this paper we have made an experimental determination of speed of the air vents outlet using various speed stages of the blower motor. Starting from the same input data, characterized by airflow of blower we will make numerical simulations using CFD software, the aim being to compare experimental results with those obtained by numerical simulation. The obtained results give us a better understanding of air flow through air conditioning ducts; will help us to see the flow distribution ratio through all four vents and the maximum air velocity at vents outlet.
Keywords: Numerical Simulation, Car Cabin, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Air Flow, Vents