Numerical study on a vehicle driver’s thermal comfort when using water thermal seats during summer and winter

In this paper, a water thermal seat is proposed to increase thermal comfort in automobiles. In order to confirm the applicability of a water thermal seat, a numerical study was conducted on the driver’s thermal comfort according to the use of the basic seat and water thermal seats (hot and cold water seats) in the car cabin under summer and winter conditions. As a result, after an elapsed cooling time of 30 min under summer condition, the predicted percentage of dissatisfaction (PPD) using the cold water seat was reduced by 23.4 % compared with that when using the basic seat. In winter, a slight dissatisfaction with the PPD (10.1 %) was presented for the basic seat, compared to 7.8 % in the initial 5 min when the hot water seat was used. Therefore, it was confirmed that the simultaneous use of HVAC and water thermal seats during summer and winter could significantly reduce the discomfort of the driver at the beginning of driving.