TY - THES ID - 134998180 TI - Thermal Wiper Blade, Determination of Effect of Wiper Blade Heating on Wiping Performance AU - Athanassoulis Makris, George AU - Vanierschot, Maarten AU - Tegenaw, Petros Demissie AU - Depondt, Helmut AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Industriële Ingenieurswetenschappen. Opleiding Master of Electromechanical Engineering Technology (Leuven) PY - 2018 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Industriële Ingenieurswetenschappen DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134998180 AB - Wiper blade wiping performance has been reported to be compromised at low ambient temperatures, degrading the driver’s visibility and increasing the risk of accident. This paper investigated whether low ambient temperatures have a negative effect on wiping performance and if this negative effect can be reversed by heating the rubber element. Two experiments were conducted in which three wiping performance indicators were investigated at low ambient temperatures with and without heating. Low ambient temperatures proved to affect the wiping performance negatively while heating the rubber element reduced the negative effects. Additionally, a one-dimensional and a two-dimensional model were developed on MATLAB to investigate the temperature development in the rubber element. The results of these models were compared to the results of the corresponding two-dimensional simulation in ANSYS Fluent. The average temperature in the MATLAB models and the ANSYS Fluent simulation evolved to the same steady state temperature value. The difference in time required for reaching thermal steady state between the one-dimensional and the two-dimensional model was interpreted. The heat flow in a heated wiper blade was approximated through a second model. The insight gained from the experiment results and the model results were used in the concept development phase where the heating methods were overviewed and concepts for future wiper blade products were proposed. The most advantageous heating method proved to be heating the wiper blade vertebrae, yet other proposed heating methods could show promising potential if researched in a greater extent. Two heated prototypes were fabricated where the vertebrae were heated by resistive heating elements. These prototypes were used in experimentation. The wiper blade concept design phase resulted in some proposed concepts for future wiper blade products which focus on thermally insulating the wiper blade from the ambient air and maximizing the heat flow to the rubber element. ER -