Radiation Modelling for Automotive Applications

Increasing performance and the more and more compact manufacturing within an underhood compartment increase the need for thermal analysis. Thermal radiation has a prominent influence in the engine compartment as well as in the passenger compartment. For example, thermal comfort for humans is influenced by radiation to the environment, considerably. The goal for this research project is to develop a radiation model suitable for CFD calculations thus providing accurate information on the temperature distribution to the design engineer without the need to forsake flexibility, which is becoming necessary to achieve shorter product development time. In the underbonnet area a high degree of obstruction is the main challenge whereas in the cabin influences of solar radiation and mutual reflections of the windows determine the choice of model. For this purpose, models derived from heat transfer science and computer graphics are taken into consideration and evaluated for their accuracy, memory requirements, and speed of solution.