Improving Defrost Performance through Design Change in Simulation and Validating through Experimental Analysis

Vehicles wind shield are designed to provide a clear visibility in any condition. As its one for the most important requirement for the comfortable and safe journey. In extreme winters wind shield of vehicles is covered with layer of ice, if frosted and results in reduces the visibility distance. To increase the the visibility and providing the comfort to vehicle driver and co-driver, heater is used in vehicle as a integrated part of vehicle HVAC system. When the blower air passes through heater, air temperature got increased. When the hot air is injected through grill at designed angle of injection and selected air velocity on wind shield surface, due to convection heat transfer, Ice on wind shield melt and thus provide a clear windshield glass and clear visibility to driver. The Objection of this paper is to optimize the design of Vehicle DUCT to improve the visibility at driver and co-driver area. Computational fluid dynamic have been carried to get the optimum design under road load and environment conditions. To verify the improvement in design, experimental testing have been carried out under same environment load conditions. During the experimental test, recorded the impact of hot air injection on wind shield, defrost performance, climate control chamber condition and vehicle cabin area. Experimental studies was carried out under ambient temperature of -10°C and 800gms of water was used to frosting of windshield. Further, numerical results were compared with experimental results and found good correlations between CFD and Testing results.