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Proper flow distribution on the windshield and side windows is critical for adequate visibility while driving. Fog or ice which forms on the windshield is the main reason of invisibility and leads to major safety issue. It has been shown that proper clear visibility for the windshield could be obtained with a better flow pattern and uniform flow distribution in the defrost mode of the automobile heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. In this study, a three dimensional numerical model of a car cabin with full HVAC system was developed using Star-CCM+, a commercial CFD package. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) approach with the realizable two-layer k-ε turbulence model was employed for simulating the airflow field on the windshield for the defrost mode. The HVAC unit, ducts and defroster grille were included in the analysis in detail and the air distribution on the windshield was studied.

Recent progress in computer-aided engineering (CAE) has made it possible to model complex interdisciplinary multiphysics analyses. This paper investigated the sequential coupled thermal-structural analysis by examining the associated thermal stresses under simulated operational conditions close to the real situation. An evaluation of exhaust muffler strain due to thermal stresses was made by coupling Star-CCM+ CFD software and ABAQUS FEM structural analysis software. The study was made to evaluate discovered muffler durability test failure and to develop a countermeasure design. Failure of the muffler internal pipe was discovered after heat cycle durability testing. The internal pipe had broken into two pieces. In the first step, CFD analysis was done by thermo-flow simulation to determine the resulting heat distribution on the muffler assembly when subjected to the prescribed peak duty cycle temperature.

The performance of an automobile engine depends on the adequate heat rejection through the radiator assembly. Despite of the existence of well-known theoretical models for various heat transfer applications, design of heat exchanger devices demands tremendous experimental work and effort. This study concerns the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze the heat transfer and fluid flow in finned tube heat exchangers which are widely used in automotive industries. Here, two different types of the finned tube heat exchangers were studied using the Star-CCM+ commercial CFD package. Because of the symmetric nature of the geometry, only a single fin was considered in simulations. Two different designs of finned tube heat exchanger were considered in the analysis and major attention was given to the fin configurations, louvers number and louvers angle.