The Journal of the Acoustical Society of KoreaISSN:1225-4428(Print) 2287-3775(Online)한국음향학회

This study proposes a numerical optimization framework to improve the oxygen delivery and flow performance for a ventilation system integrated into a vehicle seat. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations based on the multi-species incompressible Reynolds–Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations were performed, and the volume-averaged oxygen mole fraction in the breathing zone was used as the performance metric. The vertical and horizontal discharge angles were selected as design variables, and the optimal angles maximizing the breathing-zone oxygen mole fraction were determined using the Response Surface Method (RSM). In addition, adjoint-based sensitivity analysis was applied to optimize the flow path geometry for pressure-loss reduction. Numerical results show that the breathing-zone oxygen concentration increases by approximately 0.126 % compared with the baseline configuration when the optimal discharge angles are applied. Furthermore, the pressure loss is reduced by approximately 44.24 % through flow path shape optimization. Based on the fan affinity law, this pressure-loss reduction corresponds to an estimated fan noise reduction of approximately 6.33 dB under the same flow-rate condition. The proposed integrated framework demonstrates the feasibility of improving both oxygen delivery and flow efficiency and can be applied to the design of high-performance and low-noise automotive ventilation systems.