PERFORMANCE OF AN OFF-BOARD TEST RIG FOR AN AUTOMOTIVE AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

Abstract

An off-board test bench has been developed for evaluating the performance of an automotive air conditioning system. The facility consists of the mechanical hardware used in an automobile along with a large number of additional sensors and a standalone control system that mimics the operations in a car. The performance of the individual components and the system has been investigated for two major independent variables of running automobiles, namely the compressor speed and the speed of the evaporator fan. Correlations for the volumetric efficiency of the compressor and COP of the system have been developed. While the refrigerant flow rate is influenced mainly by compressor speed, the COP depends on both the operating variables. The investigation also establishes that the design of the rig, the selection and placement of the sensors and the method of measurement are suitable for its further deployment under dynamic condition and for fault diagnosis.