The air conditioning system in a car is, in addition to the heating system, installed to increase the comfort in the passenger compartment. Comfort is not the only reason for automotive air conditioning systems, as road safety also improves with the comfort of the driver, as a pleasant environment reduces driver fatigue. The rising environmental problems and, hence, resulting stringent legislation are forcing the automobile industry to develop cars with ever decreasing fuel consumptions. The question of better fuel consumption and energy utilisation does not stop with the engine and aerodynamics, but is required of the air-conditioning system as well. Thus, incessantly innovative technologies are developed to decrease the energy required by the air-conditioning systems. The interaction of the refrigerant cycle components and the rapidly changing operating conditions of the car (speed, revolutions per minute, etc.) places extensive demands on the control system. In addition, the air-conditioning system is also designed for high ambient temperatures (cool down), but is mostly used in fairly moderate conditions. This operation allows for energy saving control strategies such as externally controlled compressors, blower motor control, etc. The experimental comparison of different air-conditioning systems, components or control strategies is very time consuming and extensive, and the use of an air-conditioned wind tunnel is inevitable when experiments need to be done with reproducible ambient conditions.This, combined with the high costs of installation and operation of a wind tunnel is a major problem. Furthermore, the effect of component or control strategy enhancements should be available as soon as possible in the early stages of design. The above considerations have prompted the rapid development of new powerful simulation tools, but in most cases the simulation tools are focused on one specific component or problem only. A more holistic approach would be to combine the calculations of two or more programs. This implies the adaptation of the model to more programs which leads to a lack of transparency. Obviously, the entire development work cannot be done entirely by simulation, especially in the later phases of the development where it would still be necessary to build prototypes to evaluate the done work experimentally. However, in the early stages of development, it would be advantagous to work without expensive prototypes.

By ventilating the vehicle’s interior during a soak, the peak cooling load is reduced and therefore the air-conditioning needs less power. This in turn translates to a smaller air-conditioning unit which would consume less power, be lighter and more compact. This solar driven ventilation of the vehicle’s interior during a soak is defined as precooling. During this project the best precooling strategy for passenger vehicles was found by investigating and testing different precooling strategies and evaluating them according to their thermodynamic performance, their potential implementation and their influence on the required cooling performance of the airconditioning cycle. The best performances were achieved by strategies with a high air flow rate and a relatively low air inlet temperature. Two categories of precooling strategies were examined: natural convection and forced convection strategies. Openings in the vehicle’s body that fit to all strategies had to be found; with a big potential concerning their thermodynamic performance and other aspects like prevention against water penetration. The best investigated precooling strategies proved to be the one which used the design outlet as an inlet and the opening of the HVAC as an outlet. With these openings a good air flow through the whole cabin can be guaranteed. In addition to that the strategy only uses existing openings of the body which prevent against water penetration. The required installation space for this strategy already exists and can be considered for the package of next generation vehicles.

The simulation of vehicle engine cooling validation in a Climatic chamber will benefit all vehicle manufacturers that are responsible for the design or the localization of parts used in a vehicle's engine cooling system. The ability to test the vehicle in-house allows testing at any time of the year; it provides repeatable and comparative data, and accelerates component level approval, which in itself reduces program timing and cost. For this dissertation road level testing was conducted in Upington using a TD1200 Superflow towing dynamometer, while the in-house testing was performed on a ROTOTEST chassis dynamometer in a Climatic chamber. All tests were conducted according to GENERAL MOTORS SOUTH AFRICA global testing standards. Statistical analyses of the test data were used to determine the relationship between parameters measured and results obtained. The major contributors to the simulation process was identified and implemented to improve measurement quality and test results. The result was an accurate simulation between road and chamber testing, hence the possibility of moving away from road testing and conduct simulated chamber testing. The presented dissertation is useful for the understanding of basic vehicle cooling testing and the methodology of simulated testing in an environmentally controlled chamber.

In the last few years carbon dioxide received increasing attention as a possible replacement for fluorocarbon-based refrigerants used within present automotive A/C system technology. R-134a is harmless to the ozone layer but the greenhouse effect is more than 1300 times higher than that of an equivalent amount of CO2. Alternative refrigerants are natural gasses such as propane and butane, however these gasses are considered explosive. With many objections raised it appears if CO2 will be the future refrigrant for automotive use. One concern with R-744 is its high operating pressure and suction/discharge pressure difference when compared to common refrigeration processes. A major problem with the CO2 cycle is the loss of effciency at high ambient temperatures. With a COP optimized control system for the expansion value based on pressure, temperature and mass flow of the refrigerant, an effective A/C system for CO2 could be deleloped. This resrach offers basic knowledge of refrigerant cycles and gives an overall view of the refrigerant change-over problem. With the results obtained from the experimental work a better understanding of the CO2 cycle and a better understanding towards effective A/C systems have been realized.

The refrigerant circuits of car air-conditioning systems are fitted with so-called open type compressors, because there is only a lip seal preventing the refrigerant from leaking from the compressor housing to the atmosphere. In addition, the cycle uses damping elements between the compressor and the other components on the suction and pressure lines to reduce vibration and noise transfer from the engine to the car body. Both the lip seal and damping elements result in loss of refrigerant as they are made from elastomers and leak with age, and, under high temperature conditions inside the engine room, these elements also allow a relatively high permeation of the refrigerant gas to the atmosphere. With very high refrigerant losses in the older R12 -cooling cycles and the damage caused by this gas to the ozone layer in the stratosphere, the Montreal protocol phased out this refrigerant and the car industry was forced to revert completely to R134a until 1994/95. R134a has no ozone depletion potential, but it has a direct global warming potential, and, therefore, leakages also have to be minimised. R134a has, because of its molecular size, a high permeation potential and, hence, all the refrigerant hoses are lined internally. Unfortunately, these hoses also leak with age and significant refrigerant loss will occur [1] R134a can therefore only be viewed as a solution until an alternative refrigerant with no direct global warming potential has been developed. Candidates for new refrigerants are natural substances such as hydrocarbons or carbon dioxide [2]. Unfortunately, both substances have disadvantages and their use is restricted to special cases, for e.g. hydrocarbons are flammable and are not used in car air-conditioners, but in Germany it is used as a refrigerant in household refrigerators with hermetic cycles. What makes the implementation of carbon dioxide (CO2) difficult are the high system pressures and the low critical point [3].

M.Ing. (Electrical And Electronic Engineering) / The feasibility of various alternative methods for obtaining air conditioning in internal combustion vehicles is examined from literature studies. It is concluded that adsorption cooling which utilises the hot exhaust gases appears to be the most promising and the combination zeolite-water is chosen for further research. A synopsis of the state of the art as documented in the literature is given and typical unresolved problems are identified. A description of the basics of adsorption cooling and the properties ofthe material zeolite is elaborated upon. The requirements for a design to be successful is explained. A finite difference computer spreadsheet model is developed to aid in the calculation ofthe heat transfer process that is necessarily part ofthe sorption processes. Laboratory tests on three sorbers of proprietary design are described and the test methods are refined to the point where satisfactory results are obtained. It is concluded from the tests and computer simulations that adsorption cooling as an alternative method of vehicle air conditioning appears a viable proposition, but that further research is required.

The modelling and control method of a vehicle climatronic system, based on MATLAB/SIMULINK, is presented. In order to achieve high modelling accuracy, a developed simulation model library is introduced. The modelling approach is described and the developed models are validated with some of experimental data obtained. The models are nonlinear, independent of fluid type and based on thermo-dynamic principles. Analysis of the cooling circuit modelling and empirical real-time control models are created by using Fuzzy logic controller and Stateflow. Both of control input and output are implemented essentially at original vehicle CAN-Bus system. Feasible digital automatic control strategy basic to fuzzy theory, hardware and software solution are given. The simulation experiment is achieved with the Hardware-in-Loop technology. This control methodology is easily operated and worth applying for any further studies or methods.

The disturbing current situation regarding the world climate has initiated a major wave of urgent developments towards decreasing the overall impact of human activities on the living environment. A major role player in this development is the automobile industry that is inherently connected to pollution of various types, be it air, water or noise pollution. There have been drastic changes not only in the technologies employed in producing vehicles and components, but also in the construction and technologies built into modern automobiles to lessen the overall environmental impact of the industry. Noxious emissions have been decreased, overall efficiencies increased and vehicles are becoming more economical with each new generation. Stricter laws dictate that the level of acceptable vehicle emissions is to be decreased ever further and all manufacturers are developing various possibilities to achieve this. With the emergence of hybrid vehicle technology, there was also a sudden development of different electrical systems that were made viable by the higher onboard voltage systems employed in hybrid vehicles. One of these developments was the electrical air conditioning compressor for use in automobile applications. Although it is designed to operate with a higher voltage than the traditional 12V onboard vehicle systems, it is theoretically possible to incorporate it into a 12V system by making use of a DC-DC converter to step up the supply voltage of the electrical compressor sufficiently to allow for its successful operation. The question therefore arises whether it would be feasible and sensible to employ an electrical air conditioning system in conventional combustion engine vehicles from an overall fuel consumption and vehicle emissions point of view. A modelling approach was taken where an overall vehicle driving simulation was created to represent an average modern production vehicle. The simulation was then extended to include the options of incorporating models for both mechanically and electrically driven air conditioning systems. This provides insight into the influences of the air conditioning system on the vehicle’s overall fuel consumption and an opportunity to compare the influences from the two different systems. This study attempted to provide answers to some of the viability questions regarding the incorporation of electrically driven air conditioning systems into vehicles that use standard 12V onboard voltage systems. It was found that the electrical system has definite potential as a viable replacement option for the conventional system should it be combined with an appropriate alternator and equipped with an efficient control system.