Windshield Defrosting

New Tools for Simulation of Complex Phenomena

Development of a new CFD capability was required by a major automotive company for the simulation of windshield defrosting. Under contract, Fluent implemented the required physical models to describe the coupled heat transfer and solid- liquid phase change process. A module was also created that enabled the thickness of the ice layers and windshield glass to be efficiently modeled using prismatic computational elements. After validating the model on simple configurations, Fluent's consulting engineers established the robust performance of the model on the customer's automotive geometries.