Vehicle cabin cooling system for capturing and exhausting heated boundary layer air from inner surfaces of solar heated windows

Patent · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2001

OSTI ID:873546

Farrington, Robert B ^[1]; Anderson, Ren ^[2]

---

1. Golden, CO
2. Broomfield, CO

The cabin cooling system includes a cooling duct positioned proximate and above upper edges of one or more windows of a vehicle to exhaust hot air as the air is heated by inner surfaces of the windows and forms thin boundary layers of heated air adjacent the heated windows. The cabin cooling system includes at least one fan to draw the hot air into the cooling duct at a flow rate that captures the hot air in the boundary layer without capturing a significant portion of the cooler cabin interior air and to discharge the hot air at a point outside the vehicle cabin, such as the vehicle trunk. In a preferred embodiment, the cooling duct has a cross-sectional area that gradually increases from a distal point to a proximal point to the fan inlet to develop a substantially uniform pressure drop along the length of the cooling duct. Correspondingly, this cross-sectional configuration develops a uniform suction pressure and uniform flow rate at the upper edge of the window to capture the hot air in the boundary layer adjacent each window.

• Research Organization: Midwest Research Institute, Kansas City, MO (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-98GO10337
• Assignee: Midwest Research Institute (Kansas City, MO)
• Patent Number(s): US 6186886
• OSTI ID: 873546
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

vehicle
cabin
cooling
capturing
exhausting
heated
boundary
layer
air
inner
surfaces
solar
windows
duct
positioned
proximate
upper
edges
exhaust
hot
forms
layers
adjacent
fan
draw
flow
rate
captures
significant
portion
cooler
interior
discharge
outside
trunk
preferred
embodiment
cross-sectional
gradually
increases
distal
proximal
inlet
substantially
uniform
pressure
drop
length
correspondingly
configuration
develops
suction
edge
window
capture
significant portion
solar heat
heated air
pressure drop
preferred embodiment
flow rate
inner surface
substantially uniform
boundary layer
hot air
cross-sectional configuration
upper edges
boundary layers
cabin cooling
positioned proximate
solar heated
uniform pressure
uniform flow
cooling duct
layer adjacent
upper edge
inner surfaces
exhausting heated
/454/