Temperature field measurement of heated ventilation flow in a vehicle interior

The non-isothermal ventilation flow in a 1/10 scale vehicle interior model during compartment heating has been investigated experimentally. Three different ventilation modes were used to study their effect on the temperature field variation at the same Reynolds number. Instantaneous temperature field variations were measured by using a true colour image processing system and TLC (Thermochromic Liquid Crystal) particles. The relationship between the hue values of TLC colour image and the real temperatures was derived in advance and used to obtain real temperature variations in the vehicle interior. The ventilation flow in the passenger compartment was also visualized using a pulsed laser light sheet. As a result, the temperature field measurement technique used in this study was revealed to be a useful and powerful tool for analyzing this kind of unsteady ventilation flow problem. The panel-vent heating mode is more effective for uniform temperature distribution in the rear compartment than the foot-vent mode, and the thermal non-uniformity could be minimized by using the hybrid-vent mode in a short elapse time.