Experimental and numerical investigation of the windshield deicing analysis of a commercial vehicle

Abstract

In this study, the windshield deicing analysis of a light commercial vehicle was investigated in a transient manner both numerically and experimentally. In the numerical study, the more realistic three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models with three different inlet vent configurations, including steady and unsteady calculations, were developed by using the enthalpy-porosity technique in which the liquid form of a cell was defined as a liquid fraction. The experimental study was also performed in a standard test room and the comparative results were presented and discussed. The temperature values were suddenly increased especially close to the inlet vents. The deicing process was initiated nearly at the 10th min for both numerical and experimental studies and the liquid fraction values increased rapidly after 15 min when the temperature value of the air inlet vents was about 30°C. The highest values of temperature on the windshield were 33°C and 80% of the A-zone was defrosted in 20 min and 95% of the B-zone was defrosted in 40 min from the beginning of the test period which is compatible with the international automotive test standards. The defrosted regions obtained from the numerical and experimental studies were quite similar during all stages of the deicing process. The largest homogeneous defrosted zone was achieved for Case-1 which had defroster inlet vents with equal surface areas and space between these inlet vents. The presented method and numerical results can be used as a reference study for further similar studies to improve the defrosting performance of light commercial vehicles.