Presented at the SAE National Conference, February 1991, Detroit,
Michigan
COMPUTER-AIDED ANALYSIS OF AIRFLOW IN THE DESIGN OF AUTOMOTIVE
AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEMS
George Anderson and Arvind J. Padgaonkar
Ford Motor Company,
Climate Control division
15031 South Commerce
Drive
Dearborn, Michigan
48120
and
Akin Ecer and
Hooshang Didandeh
Technalysis
Incorporated
7120 Waldemar Drive
Indianapolis, Indiana
46268
Abstract
This paper describes
computer software developed specifically for the analysis of airflow in
the design of automotive A/C systems and its applications for improving
performance of such systems. Traditionally, design of an A/C system
involves building and testing of prototypes. The objective of this
project was to develop predictive capabilities where an engineer can
assemble a system in the computer to obtain desired air-flow
performance. The computer program is integrated and customized for
designing A/C systems. It has two parts: the first part, performance
analysis, requires the air circuit modeling of an A/C system where each
component is modeled in terms of appropriate design parameters. A system
analysis is performed to predict the interaction of the components and
the total system performance. The second part of the computer program
performs component analysis. The geometry of each of the part are first
modeled on a CAD system and then imported to form a simpler engineers
model. This model is used by the engineer as a tool for building a
finite element grid and then to perform the finite element flow
analysis. Obtained numerical results predict the details of the flow
field and the critical regions for generating pressure losses. An
engineer can modify the geometry that can provide improved flow
parameters.