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This paper summarizes investigation into the strategies, methods, and best practices for achieving low HVAC load on two existing vehicles programs. Decreasing the load required from the HVAC system will help improve the fuel economy of the truck resulting in a cost savings to the customer. A thermal analysis was performed on two truck cabin interiors to calculate the amount of energy necessary to maintain a desirable internal cabin air temperature while under certain environmental conditions. In order to quantify how much cost is associated with running the HVAC system with its current design, the thermal analysis was coupled with a computational fluid dynamics simulation to understand the complicated flow patterns inside the cab while the HVAC system is operational. The load on the HVAC system was calculated for each scenario using the thermal model and the results were compared to the benchmark.

Shielding a vehicle underbody is becoming a daunting task with increased exhaust temperatures due to emissions regulations and ever-increasing packaging constraints, which place components ever closer to exhaust systems. This experimental study was initiated to evaluate the two dimensional thermal effects of heat shield flange height and shield width in vehicle underbody idle conditions. The ultimate goal of this study is to develop a function to optimize the shape of heat shielding to achieve a specified floorpan temperature during vehicle idle conditions.