Analysis and improvement of the comfort performance of a car’s indoor environment based on the predicted mean vote–predicted percentage of dissatisfied and air age

Abstract

Good thermal comfort of vehicle can make the passenger comfortable and the driver attention concentration, so as to enhance the competitiveness of the products. The purpose of this article is to study the comfort performance of a car’s indoor environment. First, the integral method is used to calculate the coupled heat transfer of gas and solid, and the effects of solar radiation and wall heat radiation on the field of velocity and temperature are considered. The three-dimensional flow field and thermal environment of vehicle are simulated, and the distribution of airflow, velocity field, temperature field, and predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied are obtained. The results are compared with the experimental data, and the difference is less than 5%. Second, the occupant’s thermal comfort is analyzed, and the average air age is used to evaluate the air freshness. The results show that the front passengers feel medium heat, the rear passengers feel mild heat, and the air is fresh in the cabin under setting environmental conditions. Finally, the air-conditioning system is improved according to the existing problems, and the new simulation results show that the thermal comfort of the cabin has been further improved.