Published Paper Details:

The automotive air conditioning (AC) system plays a vital role in ensuring cabin comfort and vehicle endurance, and its design has received increasing attention. The air duct, which connects the AC compressor to the cockpit instrument panel outlets, significantly influences the system's cooling efficiency through its structural and flow characteristics. Its air delivery performance directly affects the uniformity of temperature and velocity fields within the cabin, thereby impacting occupant comfort. Due to spatial constraints, air duct design is among the most challenging aspects of vehicle HVAC system development. Consequently, optimizing the duct to balance spatial integration with energy efficiency is a key research focus. This study presents a CFD-based approach to the simulation and optimization of an automotive air duct. The model is initially developed using Ansa, meshed with Meshing software, and analyzed in Fluent to assess internal flow behavior. By applying defined inlet conditions, airflow distribution across outlets is evaluated. Based on a baseline vehicle duct model, issues such as turbulence and uneven outlet flow are addressed through design modifications--maintaining original spatial dimensions--and the improvements are validated through simulation results.