Experimental study of the flow characteristics in an automotive HVAC system using a PIV technique

Air flow inside an automotive HVAC module was visualized using a high-resolution PIV technique with varying temperature control modes. The PIV (particle image velocimetry) system used for the experiment consisted of a 2-head Nd:YAG laser (125 mJ), a high-resolution CCD camera (2 K × 2 K), optics and a synchronizer. A real automotive HVAC module was used as a test model, and some of its casing parts were replaced with transparent windows to capture the flow images of the laser-light-sheet illumination. In addition, instant velocity fields were measured for three different temperature control modes by adjusting the temperature baffle. Characteristics of the air flow inside the automotive HVAC were then evaluated based on the time-averaged PIV data. Results from the experiment showed that flow for the warm mode loses more momentum due to its complicated flow path. Thus, the present PIV data can be used to validate numerical prediction and to improve the performance of HVAC modules.