Improved Thermal Insulation for Contemporary Automotive Roof Structures Based on a Computational Fluid Dynamics Heat Flux Approach

摘要

Significant losses in the maximum range of electric vehicles and stricter emission norms have drawn attention to further development endeavors in the optimization of passenger compartment conditioning. This need for revision in climatization concepts stems from the focus on defusing the trade-off between thermal comfort and operating distance. Thermal insulation of the drive cabin offers a promising solution. Within this framework, this paper outlines an approach to systematically analyze prevalent heat transfer phenomena within enclosing body surfaces. The conventional roof structure comprising a functionally integrated air gap was chosen as one such representative part. Detailed analysis at this component level presents itself as rather challenging and has therefore contemporarily not been investigated in depth. Computational fluid dynamics simulations are hence employed to analyze the existing complex conjugate heat transfer scenario. As a first step, thermal characterization of the simulation methodology was validated by conducting hot box measurements. Further detailed investigation using these numerical models provided an insight into the understanding of existing heat transfer modes. The obtained results contributed toward efficiently deriving concrete insulation concepts, overcoming restrictions placed by time -and cost-intensive testing procedures.