Evaluation Method of Thermal Comfort in Excavator Cabin

The thermal comfort in the cabin of construction equipment has been becoming one of the important issues of cabin design. In this study, a performance index related to thermal comfort is proposed as a way to evaluate the effect of location of air-conditioning vents. As the first step, cooling performance at the position of operator in the cabin is calculated by using CFD. For more reliable analysis, the results of the simulation are compared with experimental data. The evaluation of the thermal comfort is then carried out considering the change of the location of air-conditioning vent with the same boundary conditions. Cooling performance for initial 1 minute after turn on the air-conditioning is predicted from the results of thermal comfort. All of the results are used to optimize the location of air-conditioning vent in the cabin to improve the thermal conditions for the operator.