Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Air Temperature Distribution inside a Car under Solar Load Condition

In this work both experimental and numerical analysis are carried out to investigate the effect of solar radiation on the cabin air temperature of Maruti Suzuki Celerio car parked for 90 min under solar load condition. The experimental and numerical analysis encompasses on temperature increment of air at various locations inside the vehicle cabin. The effect of 90 min exposure to the environment is simulated with the help of Discrete Ordinance (DO) and Surface to Surface (S2S) radiation models using ANSYS FLUENT 18.2. Moreover, the impacts of using different turbulence model on the accuracy of the simulation results and the comparison between steady state and transient state simulation results have also been studied. The results of the simulation are compared with the experimental data to contrast the model. The absolute average deviation in temperature predicted by DO and S2S model from the experimental data are 10.08 and 10.01%, respectively.