Accepted Manuscript

Title: Development and analysis of a portable compressed liquid air cooling

system for fast vehicle cabin cooling

Author: Maan Al-Zareer, Ibrahim Dincer, Marc A. Rosen

PII: S0140-7007(17)30351-1
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/doi: 10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2017.09.004
Reference: JIJR 3744

To appear in: International Journal of Refrigeration

Received date: 12-7-2017

Revised date: 26-8-2017
Accepted date: 2-9-2017

Please cite this article as: Maan Al-Zareer, Ibrahim Dincer, Marc A. Rosen, Development and
analysis of a portable compressed liquid air cooling system for fast vehicle cabin cooling,
International Journal of Refrigeration (2017), http://dx.doi.org/doi:
10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2017.09.004.

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 Development and Analysis of a Portable Compressed Liquid Air Cooling System for Fast
Vehicle Cabin Cooling
Maan Al-Zareer, Ibrahim Dincer, and Marc A. Rosen
Clean Energy Research Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of
Ontario Institute of Technology
2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7K4, Canada
Emails: maan.al-zareer@uoit.ca, ibrahim.dincer@uoit.ca, marc.rosen@uoit.ca,
Highlights:
 A novel instant vehicle cabin cooler based on compressed liquid air is proposed
 Successfully reduced the temperature of the vehicle cabin in one minute by 12.0oC
 Increasing the container pressure from 5 to 9 bar reduce the temperature 3.2oC more

Abstract
Fast cooling of the cabin of parked vehicles under in sunshine has received considerable
attention, especially when the vehicle cooling system does not have the capacity to perform such
a task in a very short period of time. Most studies have focused on cooling the vehicle cabin
throughout the parking period. In this paper, a novel portable cooling system is proposed to cool
the vehicle cabin in 60 seconds. A three dimensional heat and mass transfer model is developed
and used to evaluate the performance of the proposed cooling system. The proposed cooling
system consists of an insulated container with a volume of 1.0 liter that is filled with compressed
liquid air, which requires simple modification to the rear air vent system. The proposed system
was able to lower the temperature of the vehicle by 12.0oC and 15.2oC for container pressures of
5.0 bar and 9.0 bar, respectively.

Keywords: Cooling, liquid air, vehicle cabin cooling, heat transfer.

Nomenclature
cp Specific heat capacity (kJ/kg.K)
F External forces acting on the fluid domain (N)
k Thermal conductivity (W/m.K)
Thermal energy rate (W)
t Time (s)
T Temperature (oC or K)
u Velocity (m/s)
Greek letters
Mass density (kg m-3)
Fluid domain
Dynamic viscosity (Pa.s)
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Acronyms
CLAC Compressed liquid air container

1. Introduction
Vehicles are an important part of modern transportation. Conventional vehicles consume fossil
fuels, leading to hazardous emissions, global warming, and smog. This and other factors have
increased interest in cleaner energy sources and advanced technologies to exploit them. Electric
vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles have been the focus of much research to reduce harmful
emissions from vehicles [1]. Fuel cell vehicles are another available vehicle technology with zero
carbon emissions; these vehicles operate on hydrogen, which is considered a clean fuel if
produced from renewable energy or non-carbon based energy sources [2,3]. Other interesting
energy sources such as harvesting environmental energy such as vibration energy are in the early
stages of research [4,5].

For passengers of vehicles, air conditioning is important for comfort. Air conditioning
units consume the majority of energy among all vehicle ancillary loads, and the performance of
the air conditioning unit greatly affects vehicle fuel consumption [6]. Two modes of air
conditioning are required of the vehicle system: heating during winter and cooling during
summer. Heating in the winter is usually easily available since the car engine releases thermal
energy to the environment at a high rate and at high temperature, and this can be recovered and
used during the winter. But, the high vehicle cabin temperature in the summer, especially for
outdoor-parked vehicles, can pose a significant problem. The high temperature in the vehicle
cabin lead to high fuel consumption by the vehicle, since its air conditioning system requires a
great amount of energy for cabin cooling. A high vehicle cabin temperature also reduces the life
of the vehicle interior materials, and can cause some of the materials in the vehicle to release
harmful vapors and fumes.

Renewable energy such solar and wind energy has been increasingly used to provide heat
and electricity. The use of renewable energy in air conditioning applications, which can reduce
carbon emissions and fuel consumption, has recently attracted the attention of researchers and
industry. The most common proposed solar energy based air conditioning systems can be divided
into two categories: photovoltaic (PV) solar energy conversion and photothermic conversion [6].
PV collectors have been used in cooling systems for air conditioning, and reductions in PV costs

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have caused this use to increase [7]. Anis et al. [8] proposed and assessed the performance of a
PV based air conditioning system that uses microprocessor control. Anis et al. compared the
results of their system with a conventional cooling system that uses PV power, and found that the
microprocessor based system increased the feasibility of the motor’s high starting current. Daut
et al. [9] proposed an air conditioning system based on solar PV, which has a charge controller,
an air conditioning unit and batteries for intermediate energy storage. But solar energy for air
conditioning is not limited to PV, since other methods such as solar based absorption air cooling
provide alternative methods of harvesting solar energy in air conditioning applications. Porumb
et al. [10] compared the thermal performance of a solar absorption based air cooling system with
that of a PV based air cooling system. That comparison showed that the PV cooling fraction is by
12.1% higher than the absorption cooling fraction.

Although, as pointed out earlier, a number of researchers has considered solar energy as
an energy supply for air conditioning applications, their focus was on residential application.
Desideri et al. [11] economically analyzed two solar based air conditioning systems for meat
manufacturing cooling and heating and cooling a hotel located in Italy. The motivation was that
residential and tertiary sectors are responsible for 40% of the total energy consumption and 20%
of the CO2 emissions across the European Union. Desideri et al. found that the discounted
payback period to be 12 years for the proposed systems, considering a fixed interest rate of 5%.
Rosiek and Batlles [12] proposed a solar air cooling system with chilled water storage, for which
the system operation mode depends on the feedback received from the occupancy sensors. The
solar and chilled water storage tanks were able to reduce the electricity consumption by 42% and
carbon emissions by 1.3 tons of CO2 during summer operation.

The promising results of various studies [8–12] on the use of solar energy in air
conditioning, especially air cooling, motivated researcher to consider the use of solar technology
in parked vehicle cooling applications. Abraham et al. [13] proposed a thermoelectric refrigerator
integrated with a PV power source to cool the vehicle cabin on sunny days. Abraham et al. built
a lab scale prototype for their proposed system and found that the device was able to successfully
cool the vehicle cabin to the ambient temperature. Yan et al. [14] proposed and modeled a solar
energy based cooling device for electric vehicles, where the device is installed in the vehicle
cabin. The proposed system was simulated and the results showed that the system was able to
replace the hot air in the vehicle with colder air from the ambient surrounding air. A
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disadvantage of the system of Yan et al. [14] is that, for countries with hot weather (deserts),
although the ambient air is cooler than the heated air in the vehicle cabin, it is not comfortable
for vehicle passengers. Zhang et al. [15] patented a device that cools the vehicle cabin using solar
based air conditioning, using a foldable solar collector. Pan et al. [7] proposed a novel portable
solar energy based vehicle cabin cooling system. The main system components are foldable PV
panels, an air conditioning unit and wireless electrical energy transfer to avoid opening the
windows of the vehicle. The PV electrical energy is stored in capacitors without breaching the
vehicle body since the electrical energy is transferred wirelessly. The cooling system of Pan et al.
was able to reduce the average temperature of the vehicle cabin by 4.2oC.

The above discussed papers indicate that the use of solar energy in vehicle cabin cooling
brings a potential opportunity. However, most of these studies have focused on operating a
cooling system driven by solar energy via, for example, a photovoltaic unit, especially during the
parking stage. Furthermore, the previous systems appear to be complicated and require time and
effort for daily assembly and disassembly, which may not be practically feasible, especially
where passengers do not have enough time and energy for such tasks. A further problem for
some vehicles is a lack of height and space for the unit (although it may be possible to install it
on top of the vehicle). In this paper, a novel compact portable system is proposed with no
moving parts, no complicated mechanisms and no assembly required after parking. The system
uses small (1.0 liter) compressed liquid air containers that are deployed for one minute prior to
entering the cabin of a vehicle that was parked in the sun. A three dimensional heat and mass
transfer model is developed and used to simulate the behavior of the proposed system and to
assess its performance. The effect of the pressure and the volume of the compressed liquid air
container on the decrease in the average temperature of the vehicle is investigated. The aim of
this paper is to develop a novel, portable and easy to use instantaneous vehicle cabin cooling
system that can compete with complicated and more time and energy consuming solar based
devices.

2. System description

Fig. 1 shows the proposed instantaneous vehicle cabin cooling system, which is based on
compressed liquid air that is portable and easy to use. Fig.1 (a) shows the arrangement and the
location of the rear conditioned air distributing system, where the cold air is generated by the

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refrigeration cycle of the vehicle. The proposed compressed liquid air container (CLAC) is
designed to enter the rear conditioned air distribution system as shown in Fig. 1 (b). Fig. 1 (c)
shows a section view of the rear conditioned air distribution system and how the CLAC enters
the conditioned air passages. It is seen in Fig. 1 (c) that there is a valve in the form of a door;
when the CLAC enters through the designated location, it pushes the valve to close the passage
of the conditioned air. The valve is designed so that, when the compressed liquid air is flashed
after the container is opened, no air goes back through the air passage to the air conditioner
system of the vehicle. When the vehicle is running and the air conditioning is running the valve
closes the on the designated location, preventing the conditioned air from going in that direction.
The proposed system uses the air conditioning passages and outlets to distribute efficiently the
cold air through the vehicle, since the location and the design of these passages and outlets are
designed to effectively distribute the conditioned air throughout the vehicle cabin.

The use of the proposed system is now described. On returning to the outdoor parked
vehicle, the passenger opens it and places the CLAC in the designated location, which is located
in the rear air vents stand as shown in Fig. 1. Note that it is assumed that the small container is
with the passenger before returning to the vehicle. The CLAC is designed to open to the
surrounding environment after 10 seconds from turning it on (a period of time set for the safety
of the passengers, to allow them to leave the vehicle before the cooling system cools the vehicle
over a 1 minute period). The passenger closes the vehicle doors while keeping the windows
rolled down by 2.5 cm. A part of the compressed liquid air changes phase suddenly due to the
sudden drop in pressure as the CLAC is opened to the cabin environment. The system parameters
are selected to ensure that all the vapor leaves the container and enters the vehicle cabin in 5
seconds, while the remaining liquid air is determined to evaporate completely in one minute. The
proposed CLAC system is designed to be a carry on device that is the size of a large water bottle.
Thus it can be carried from home to a parked hot vehicle or from a workplace to a parked
vehicle, and is not designed to be left in the car. However, if the CLAC unit is left in the vehicle
cabin, the injection port will work as a pressure relief valve, and release part of the air in the
vapor phase to maintain a constant pressure in the CLAC if the sufficient heat leaks into the
container to cause an increase in the container pressure. It is also suggested that the containers
are used once they are bought into the vehicle.

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3. Analysis and Modeling

To analyze and assess the performance of the proposed instantaneous hot vehicle cabin cooling
system, a three dimensional heat and mass transfer model and simulation is developed, where the
model considers the average interior shape and volume of a sedan vehicle. The simulated vehicle
domain and the selected boundary conditions are shown in Fig. 2. In that figure, the boundary
conditions defined in the heat and mass transfer model in COMSOL are seen. Thermophysical
material properties not available in the COMSOL library, especially for liquid air, were imported
from the library of Engineering Equation Solver (EES). Table 1 presents the main parameters of
the vehicle cabin model used in this paper.

3.1 Numerical solution

The meshing and the simulation of the thermal performance of the deployed vehicle cabin
cooling system is done with COMSOL Multiphysics software. The thermal performance of the
cooling system is assessed using the three dimensional heat and mass transfer model shown in
Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 1, the cold air exiting the CLAC is distributed in the vehicle cabin
through the rear air vents, which are selected as the inlet boundary condition based on the mass
flow. The mass flow entering the vehicle cabin is approximated as a steady state flow for a
duration of the five seconds, since the difference in the pressure between the CLAC and the
vehicle pressure is very large. In addition, the operation time is very small to allow the pressure
of the vehicle cabin to build up. Since the front windows of the vehicle are lowered down 2.5
cm, the changes in the pressure of the vehicle cabin is negligible, as it will not reduce the mass
flow rate of the cold air flowing into the vehicle cabin. The front window openings are selected
as an outlet boundary condition.

The air is modeled as a weakly compressible flow to take into account the sudden mixing
of the cold air and hot air initially in the vehicle cabin and also to simulate the air circulation in
the vehicle cabin and to account for the variation of the fluid properties with temperature. The
difference between compressible and weakly compressible flows is that the variations of material
properties with pressure are considered for compressible flow. The slightly opened front
windows, which are part of operating the cooling system procedure, are selected as an outlet
boundary condition as shown in Fig. 2. The initial temperature of the vehicle cabin is taken from
Dadour et al. [16], who provide a cabin temperature variation model for a vehicle in the sun.
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That particular model, which is based on a basic greenhouse model, predicts a maximum
temperature increase to up to 20oC above the ambient temperature.

The fluid flow into the vehicle is simulated as laminar, since the Reynolds number of the
flowing cold air into the vehicle cabin is 64,000, which is much lower than the critical Reynolds
number of 500,000. The outside surface of the vehicle cabin including the roof, the windows,
and the doors are assumed to be insulated, since the natural convention heat losses or gains occur
on the outer surface of the vehicle cabin during the short period of operation of the proposed
cooling system can be neglected. The assumption of no heat losses or gains by all the vehicle
walls is chosen based on Dadour et al. [16] study. Dadour et al. reported an experimental data of
Ford sedan vehicle cabin temperature variation versus daytime hours. The vehicle cabin
temperature when the windows were rolled down 2.5 cm and not under the blazing sun, the cabin
temperature cooled down at a rate of 0.1oC/min through the same temperature range the
proposed cooling system is operating. However, the proposed system is designed to reduce the
average temperature of the vehicle by minimum 10oC through its operation time, which is one
minute. As presented the designed temperature drop is 100 times more than that due to the
external natural convection, which leads to assuming the insulated walls.

Two pressures of the CLAC (9.0 bar and 5.0 bar) are considered in this study to assess
the performance of the cooling system under different operating parameters. The pressure value
of 5.0 bar was selected based on the lumped model analysis of the variation of the temperature of
the vehicle cabin through the operation time of the proposed cooling system. The lumped model
assumed complete heat exchange takes place between the cold air and the vehicle cabin air
before the cold air leaves the vehicle through the rolled down windows. The lumped model
resulted in a temperature of 25oC, later on this value will be compared to the results of the three
dimensional detailed heat and mass transfer COMSOL model. Then the effect of the pressure
(the mass flow rate of the cold air entering the vehicle space) of the CLAC was investigated by
selecting a higher pressure value to achieve higher mass flow rate into the vehicle. The higher
pressure value selected was 9.0 bar, which is slightly lower than the maximum pressure of
aerosol cans, which is 10 bar [17]. These pressures correspond to saturation temperatures of -
169oC and -177oC, respectively. It is determined that the remaining liquid air in the container
that did not flash evaporates throughout the one minute from the opening of the tank.

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3.2 Governing equations

The three dimensional heat and mass transfer model of the instantaneous cooling of the vehicle
cabin is governed by the continuity principle, the Navier-Stokes equations (conservation of
momentum) and the energy balance. The continuity principle, which describes the conservation
of mass, can be written as follows:

(1)

Here, is the density of the fluid, u is the vector velocity and t is time. From the continuity
equation the global formulation of the mass conservation equation is obtained by integrating the
continuity equation over the fluid domain and using the divergence theorem. The result follows:

(2)

Here, the first term represents the change of the mass of the fluid domain and the second term the
net of the mass entering and leaving the system.

The momentum balance equation is expressed in the Navier-Stokes equation, which can
be written in a compact form as follows:

(3)

Here, is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid. The first term on the left side refers to the inertial
forces, while on the right side the first term represents the pressure forces, the second term the
viscous forces, and the last term the external forces acting on the fluid.

The conservation of energy for the vehicle cabin can be expressed as follows:

(4)

Here, k is the thermal conductivity of the fluid and Q is the net external thermal energy added to
the fluid. Note that energy interactions due to work transfer are omitted from the equation since
there are no work interactions occurring through the cooling process. The first term from the left
represents the variation of the internal energy of the fluid, the second term represents the energy
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that is transported through the fluid. The third term on the left represents the transport of energy
through the fluid by conduction.

4. Results and Discussion

The effect and the performance of the proposed instant vehicle cabin cooler on the temperature
in the fluid domain of the hot vehicle under the sun is investigated. The performance of the
cooling system is assessed for two pressure values of the CLAC. The proposed system cooling
performance is assessed for a duration of 60.0 seconds, which includes the 5.0 seconds when the
CLAC releases the cold air into the vehicle cabin with a high velocity. It was found that for a
CLAC volume of1.0 liters, a constant air mass flow rate can be achieved during the five seconds
of the operation time of the cooling system. The total amount of air introduced to the vehicle
cabin during the first five seconds accounts for 0.7/s and 1.1/s of the total mass of the vehicle
cabin for CLAC pressure of 5.0 bar and 9.0 bar respectively. The mass flow rate during each
second of the operation to the total mass of the vehicle cabin for various pressure values and
different CLAC sizes is shown in Fig. 3. As shown in Fig. 3, increasing the mass flow rate can
be achieved by either increasing the pressure of the container or increasing its volume. At the
same operating pressure of the container, higher mass flow rates can be achieved with larger
container volumes. Note however that the injection nozzle for a higher volume must be larger
than for a smaller volume in order to achieve the higher mass flow rates observed in Fig. 3. The
1.0 liter CLAC at a pressure of 5.0 bar and 9.0 bar is able to reduce the average temperature of
the vehicle by 12.0oC and 15.2oC respectively after 55 seconds after the liquid to vapor flashing,
which lasts five seconds (see Fig. 4). Fig. 4 shows that, for case when the CLAC pressure is 5.0
bar, 75.0% of the vehicle cabin average temperature reduction occurs in the first five seconds of
the operation time, which is when the sudden liquid to vapor change occurs and the liquid flows
with high velocity into the vehicle cabin. The remaining 25.0% of the vehicle cabin average
temperature reduction occurs when the cold air is further mixed with the vehicle air and
continues to push the warm air out of the vehicle (as is shown in detail subsequently), and the
remaining liquid air evaporates gradually in the vehicle. For the case when the CLAC pressure is
9.0 bar, 82.6% of the cooling is achieved in the first five seconds of flashing liquid air to vapor.

The performance of the proposed instant cooling system is investigated through the
average temperature of the vehicle cabin, and the development of isothermal surface plots for the

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two CLAC pressures considered in this paper. The isothermal surface plots display temperature
distributions for various vehicle components: front three windows (the front two windows of the
driver and front passenger seat), vehicle metallic body, dashboard, floor, rear windows, front
doors, back doors, rear seats, front seats and roof. The temperature variations for these ten parts
of the vehicle cabin as a function of the operation time of cooling system are presented in Fig. 5
for the two considered CLAC operation pressures. Figs. 5a and 5b present the temperature
variations of the previously mentioned parts of the vehicle for the case when the CLAC pressure
is 5.0 bar. Fig. 5a shows that the temperature of the rear windows and the back doors of the
vehicle are the first to feel the cold temperature of the flashed compressed liquid air, followed by
the vehicle metallic body and the roof. As shown in Figs. 5a and 5b, the lowest temperature
reached in the vehicle is 288 K, at the back doors of the vehicle. The temperatures of the rear
windows and the back doors drop by 27.0 and 29.0 K respectively in the first 5.0 seconds of
operation of the cooling system. This can be explained by the high mass flow rate exiting the rear
air vents and directly striking the back windows and the back doors. This effect is shown in Fig.
6, which shows isothermal surfaces through the 60 seconds of operation of the cooling system
for the case when the pressure of the CLAC is 5.0 bar. Fig. 6 provides a visual explanation of the
temperature plots in Figs. 5a and 5b. As shown in Fig. 6, at times 2, 3, 4 and 5 seconds, the back
windows and the back doors are in contact with the coldest air. Then the temperature of the back
doors decrease more quickly than the temperature of the back windows. The isothermal
development from time 5.0 to 10.0 seconds in Fig. 6 demonstrate that the coldest air goes to the
roof, due to the design of the cold air injection system of the rear air vents. As shown in Fig. 6, at
time 10.0 seconds from the start of operation, the roof and most of the vehicle metallic body are
exposed to the coldest air. After 20.0 seconds, the coldest air is no longer present since the
supply of the coldest air is limited to slow evaporation (relative to the simulated and design time)
and the coldest air is mixed with hot air trapped in the vehicle cabin. The cold air spreads first to
the back of the vehicle, reaching the rear dashboard, and then heads to the front dashboard, as is
visible in Figs. 5a, 5b and 6. The internal circulation due to natural convection at the end of the
one-minute operating period pushes the remaining hot air out of the window openings. This
effect can be clearly observed in the development of isothermal surfaces from time 40.0 to 60.0
seconds. During that period, the temperatures of the front windows are high compared to those of
the front doors, which continue to decrease. Most parts of the vehicle reach a temperature below

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the average vehicle temperature except for the front windows, the dashboard (front), the floor
and the front doors. This is done to avoid rapid and sudden temperature changes for the
dashboard electronics.

It is expected that all parts of the vehicle are able to handle such temperatures since the
lowest temperature reached in a vehicle body part, when the pressure of the CLAC is 5.0 bar, is
288 K (15oC). The effect of the pressure of the CLAC is studied through measuring the
performance of the vehicle at a higher pressure of 9.0 bar. Figs. 5c and 5d show the temperature
variation of various parts of the vehicle for the case of a CLAC pressure of 9.0 bar. When the
pressure increases at a constant CLAC volume, as shown in Fig. 3, the mass flow rate increases,
reducing the minimum temperature reached in the vehicle from 288 K to 285 K. The effect of the
higher mass flow rate is also visible in the change in the temperature of the roof and the vehicle
metallic body. The minimum temperature the roof and the vehicle metallic body reach is nearly
the lowest, unlike when the pressure is 5.0 bar, as they experience minimum temperatures that
are higher by 4.0 and 6.0 K, respectively. Fig. 7 shows the isothermal surfaces through the 60
seconds of the operation of the cooling system for the case when the pressure of the CLAC is 9.0
bar. A further effect of increasing the pressure (increasing the mass flow rate) is that the front
seats reach a temperature lower than the average temperature and the hot air is expelled from the
vehicle and the remaining air is mixed faster, as shown in Fig. 7. Another noticeable advantage
of increasing the CLAC pressure from 5.0 bar to 9.0 bar is the increase in the temperature
uniformity through the vehicle cabin, as shown in Fig. 5.

5. Conclusions

A novel instant vehicle cabin cooler based on compressed liquid air is proposed. The operation
of the cooling system has two stages. In the first stage, which lasts for 5 seconds, the sudden
exposure of the liquid air to the low vehicle cabin pressure flashes part of it into the vehicle cabin
air. In the second stage, which lasts for 55 seconds, the flow of the flashed vapor stops, the
remaining liquid air evaporates gradually, and the cold air mixes with the hot vehicle cabin air.
The thermal performance of the proposed system is analyzed and assessed for two operating
pressures through the temperature variation of each part of the vehicle (divided into ten main
parts), the vehicle cabin average temperature and the isothermal surface variations, during the
operation of the cooling system. The main conclusions of the study are as follows:

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  The proposed cooling system can successfully reduce the temperature of the vehicle
cabin in one minute by 12.0oC and 15.2oC for compressed liquid air pressures of 5.0 bar
and 9.0 bar, respectively.
 The proposed system has the advantage of simplicity and short operating time compared
to the complicated systems reported in the literature.
 Increasing the pressure of the compressed liquid air container from 5.0 bar to 9.0 bar
reduces the average temperature of the vehicle by 3.2oC and results in a more uniform
temperature distribution throughout the vehicle cabin.

A disadvantage of the proposed liquid air based cooling system is the requirement for
modifications in the vehicle rear air distribution stand, which is where the air conditioning rear
air vents are mounted. However, the modifications are simple and do not require special
electronics. A modification of the design of the compressed liquid air container may be possible
to remove the cooling system dependence on the modified rear air vents, and work in line with
that aim appears to be merited. Regarding the economic aspects of the proposed system, a
comprehensive feasibility study is needed, along with a technoeconomic comparison with
conventional cooling systems and options. It is also necessary to study indoor comfort and noise
aspects for comprehensive assessments and comparisons.

It is further noted that an increase in the vehicle cabin temperature when a car is parked
in the sun can lead to the release of harmful gases to the cabin space and has the potential to
damage some of the vehicle cabin contents. The proposed system does not avoid this issue
directly, as the cabin temperature still increases when the vehicle is parked in the sun, but
proposed system partly assists since it injects fresh cold air into the vehicle cabin causing the
rejection of part of the hot air in the vehicle to the outside along with most of the released
harmful gases while it cools the remaining air. Usually this is not a significant issue and the
potential of the high vehicle temperature to damage vehicle cabin devices is neglected since most
vehicle cabins are designed to handle such high temperatures. Nonetheless, further research
appears to be merited on the effectiveness of the proposed system in removing the released
harmful gases from the vehicle cabin components during parking periods.

6. Acknowledgements

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The authors acknowledge the support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada. The authors also acknowledge the support provided by COMSOL
developer website for providing the CAD model of the interior space of the vehicle.

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Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of the proposed instantaneous vehicle cabin cooling system that is
based on compressed liquid air containers.

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Fig. 2: Boundary conditions of the simulated fluid domain of the vehicle cabin during the
operation of the instantaneous compressed liquid air based cooling system.

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Fig. 3: Variation with liquid air pressure of the ratio of mass flow rate of cold air to the total
mass of the vehicle cabin air for the first five seconds of operating time, where the flow rate is
due to the sudden flash of the liquid air.

Fig. 4: Temporal variation of vehicle cabin average temperature for two compressed liquid air
container pressures.

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Fig. 5: Temporal variation of the average temperature of the front three windows, vehicle
metallic body, dashboard, floor, rear windows, front doors, back doors, rear seats, front seats,
and roof of the vehicle cabin. (a) and (b) for a compressed liquid air pressure of 5.0 bar, and (c)
and (d) for a pressure of 9.0 bar.

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Fig. 6: Isothermal surface plots of the vehicle cabin during the operation time of the proposed
cooling system for a compressed liquid air container pressure of 5.0 bar. In the isothermal
surfaces plots, the boundary between two temperature volumes are shown, and the part of the
vehicle outside the outer most surface is equal to the temperature of that surface.

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Fig. 7: Isothermal surface plot of the vehicle cabin during the operation time of the proposed
cooling system for a compressed liquid air container pressure of 9.0 bar. In the isothermal
surfaces plots, the boundary between two temperature volumes are shown, and the part of the
vehicle outside the outer most surface is equal to the temperature of that surface.

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Table 1: Main properties of the vehicle cabin model used in assessing the performance of the
proposed instantaneous compressed liquid air based cooling system.
Parameter Value
Inlet diameter of the compressed liquid air 0.59 mm (when the container pressure is 9 bar)
container nozzle 0.58 mm (when the container pressure is 5 bar)
Inlet area of rear air vents
Area of opening in front windows
Surface area of windows in the vehicle 3.53 m2
Volume of vehicle cabin 3.29 m3

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