Experimental analysis of a car incorporating phase change material

• To analyse the thermal discomfort in a car after parking it to the sun.
• Phase change materials are used to enhance the thermal comfort of cars.
• Phase change materials are used to reduce surface temperature of the steering wheel.

When in summer period vehicles, in particular cars, are parked outdoors their interior temperature increases dramatically even if the day is cloudy. Hence the thermal discomfort is obvious for the passengers when they get into the vehicle after a car park. In this paper the enhancement of the interior vehicle temperature conditions parked under the sun when a thermal energy storage (TES) system is placed inside the car is experimentally studied. The aim of this paper is to prove experimentally the benefit of using phase change materials (PCM) in terms of interior comfort for car passengers. The use of PCM results in lower air and steering wheel surface temperature and the increase of the thermal comfort of passengers. The benefit of the implementation of PCM inside cars was demonstrated since it maintained lower interior vehicle air and steering wheel surface temperatures.