Calibration of Virtual Testing Stand of the Car Cabin using climatic chamber tests

Abstract

The aim of our research is to calibrate and verify of the software Virtual Testing Stand of the Car Cabin using climatic chamber tests. The Virtual Testing Stand is standalone executable software developed in Matlab for prediction of the cabin environment and thermal heat load by using the time-efficient heat balance model. The main limitation of the simulation method is a simplified convection scheme inside a cabin using the empirical correlations instead of the CFD simulations. In this paper we present the first preliminary tests of the calibration process and verification of the simulation results. Tests were carried out for the car Skoda Octavia Combi with the silver metallic paint. The material composition of the test car was deeply explored and the material properties of the cabin were identified as accurate as possible. The car was exposed to the various environments inside a climate chamber. In this paper we report about two performed tests: summer solar soak test and winter heat-up test with the defined heat source.