抄録
Flow mixing in an air conditioning unit for automobiles is studied experimentally in a water tunnel to investigate the mixing mechanisms of flow inside the unit at various mix-door angles. Flow visualization is carried out using tracer particles and the fluorescent dyes illuminated by Ar laser sheet, which allows the simultaneous measurement of velocity and diffusion distributions of the flow mixing in the unit by analyzing the captured color images. The measurement of velocity and diffusion distributions indicates enhanced flow mixing at certain mix-door angles, which is caused by the intense mixing of the main flow and the recirculating heater flow downstream of the mix-door. The temperature distribution measured in a prototype unit supports the mixing characteristics observed in the model unit, suggesting the usefulness of the present image analysis.
