Experimental analysis of a car incorporating phase change material

Abstract

When in summer period vehicles, in particular cars, are parked outdoors their interior temperature increases dramatically even if the day is cloudy. Hence the thermal discomfort is obvious for the passengers when they get into the vehicle after a car park. In this paper the enhancement of the interior vehicle temperature conditions parked under the sun when a thermal energy storage (TES) system is placed inside the car is experimentally studied. The aim of this paper is to prove experimentally the benefit of using phase change materials (PCM) in terms of interior comfort for car passengers. The use of PCM results in lower air and steering wheel surface temperature and the increase of the thermal comfort of passengers. The benefit of the implementation of PCM inside cars was demonstrated since it maintained lower interior vehicle air and steering wheel surface temperatures.

The work is partially funded by the Spanish Government (ENE2011-22722). The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group GREA (2009 SGR 534). Eduard Oró would like to thank the University of Lleida for his research fellowship.