ANNOUNCEMENTS
Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have gained the attention of many researchers for their application in managing the thermal loads. Their property of absorbing heat during the sunshine and releasing the stored heat during dark makes them the best option for their application in several areas such as automotive industry, transportation of temperature dependent products, buildings etc. One of the major areas of application of PCMs is in automobiles for reducing the load on compressor of HVAC system thereby reducing the fuel consumption. The solar radiation falling on the body enters into the cabin through front, rear and sides windows. This will raise the temperature of the car cabin when the engine is put OFF at traffic signal. There is an increase in temperature of around 21 K inside the vehicle cabin in 120 s. This increase in temperature is due to the solar radiation falling in the vehicle body and heat radiated by passenger through perspiration. The PCM is able to reduce the temperature of the cabin by approximately 18 K. The PCM is able to maintain the temperature of 298 K for around 80 s.
Keywords: - HVAC System, Phase Change Material, Heat Transfer, Computational Fluid Dynamics, ANSYS Fluent
