VEHICLE CABIN COOLING SYSTEM

摘要

The cabin cooling system (10) includes a cooling duct (62) positioned proximate and above upper edges of one or more windows of a vehicle (14) to exhaust hot air as the air is heated by inner surfaces of the windows and forms thin boundary layers of heated air (8) adjacent the heated windows. The cabin cooling system (10) includes at least one fan to draw the hot air into the cooling duct (62) at a flow rate that captures the hot air in the boundary layer (12) without capturing a significant portion of the cooler cabin interior air and to discharge the hot air at a point outside the vehicle cabin (24), such as the vehicle trunk (26). In a preferred embodiment, the cooling duct (62) has a cross-sectional area that gradually increases from a distal point to a proximal point to the fan inlet to delevop a substantially uniform pressure drop along the length of the cooling duct (62). Correspondingly, this cross-sectional configuration develops a uniform suction pressure and uniform flow rate at the upper edge of the window to capture the hot air in the boundary layer (12) adjacent each window.