Numerical Simulation of the Thermal Comfort in a Model of a Passenger Car Cabin

Abstract

Results of numerical simulations of the air flow including the heat transport, the thermal radiation and the thermal comfort of passengers in a mo-del of passenger car cabin are presented. The computations have been performed by coupling flow simulations conducted with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code OpenFOAM with heat transport simulations for the passengers using the finite-element code THESEUS-FE. With the latter the heat transport within the passengers was modeled in on various layers with different heat transport characteristics to account for effects like blood flow, heat transfer through the skin and clothing as well as activity levels and ambient humidity. Four different ventilation variants were investigated. The analysis of the results is based on the comparison of comfort parameters and the energy efficiency of the studied ventilation techniques.