SAE 2016-01-0191:2016-04-05

Water drainage characteristics of an evaporator changes with the age of the vehicle. This is due to the fact that with time, a part of the hydrophilic coating washes off with the moisture that condenses over the evaporator core from the air-stream. Hence, the effectiveness of the evaporator for water drainage deteriorates with the age of the vehicle. At this condition more water is retained in the evaporator as the contact angle increases. Author has conducted experiments with evaporators from multiple vehicles from different OEMs. These evaporators were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the hydrophilic coating as a function of time or vehicle age.

This is the first paper in the open literature that deals with the vehicle mileage or vehicle age with the evaporator plate contact angle and surface coating of an evaporator.