Abstract
Different feelings contribute to the overall perception of comfort provided by
the air conditioning in the automotive field.
Along with thermal and aerodynamic [temperature, air velocity] and acoustic [vibrations and
noise] criteria, air quality [pollution and odours] is becoming a key item for passengers´ well-being
in the car cabin.
Equipment rate for air treatment solutions in vehicles is increasing regularly, compared to the
public sensitivity to atmospheric pollution and its influence on health. The current solutions
like particle filters and combined filters are efficient against some kinds of pollutants but their
performance could be improved.
That is why the first step of this paper is focus on the air quality level achieved in the car
cabin in driving conditions following several measurements done by the authors and studies
coming from the literature.
Authors focus the second part of their presentation on particulate pollutants and mainly very
small particles (<1µm). The authors show that usual automotive standards are not always
representative from the situation in true operating conditions. For that reason some
improvement of laboratory test conditions are proposed. Based on these newly measurement
protocols, authors present an innovative automotive development - the electrostatic filtration -and
results achieved by this device in laboratory [simulated atmospheric conditions] and field
tests in urban area.
The results achieved, demonstrate that an important gap in terms of performances could be
achievable with this technology in comparison to usual cabin air filters. Thus, first results in
road test conditions have shown that the concentration of submicron particles could be
reduced by a factor of 2.
This work was performed with the financial support of the European Community.
Keywords - air conditioning, comfort, air quality, particles, filtration.