In recent years, the demand for residential cooling has risen continuously. This is due not only to warmer summers resulting from climate change but also to improved building insulation and increasingly larger living spaces. Residential HVAC systems must not only provide heating and hot water but also offer efficient cooling. This means that during colder periods the system heats, while in summer the air conditioning unit functions as a heat pump to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures. Furthermore, these units must be compact, cost-effective to produce, highly efficient, and operate with low noise and pollutant emissions.
One of the key factors in achieving all design objectives is the internal airflow, which requires sophisticated management. Consequently, FlowMotion was commissioned to simulate and analyse the airflow using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The major advantage of CFD over a development process based on prototypes and subsequent physical measurements is the ability to investigate various design variants more rapidly and with greater depth of insight.
A wide range of inlet and outlet configurations, as well as various filters and evaporators, were simulated. Pressure and velocity distributions were calculated for all variants. The analysis of the results from all simulations ultimately led to an air conditioning unit that met all design goals and set new standards in the climate control market.
