Modular modeling of a refrigeration container

The energy efficiency of road refrigerated transport is still a less researched area, despite a significant amount of energy being used for cooling perishable goods inside the refrigerated vehicle. The refrigeration units of these vehicles continuously operate while en route from the cargo sender to the recipient, even during the vehicle’s forced stopovers due to the driver’s working time limitations. This article aims to summarize the impact of the parking sheds used in rest and service areas on the energy consumption of the vehicle’s refrigeration unit. The achievable cost savings by decreasing the energy consumption of the semi-trailer’s refrigeration units are also presented. We establish a mathematical model to calculate the heat balance and verify our approach. The calculation results, which were carried out under certain operating conditions of the refrigeration unit of a semi-trailer, provide an opportunity to achieve savings on a scale of 12.03%. Lastly, ideal locations of rest and service areas with sheds along the motorways and expressways in Poland are also proposed.

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“…Other solutions have also been suggested to reduce energy consumption in the transport of perishable goods [30,[50][51][52]]:…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Parking Sheds on Energy Efficiency of Road Refrigerated Transport

Filina-Dawidowicz

Csiszár

2022

Energies

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“…Some studies focus on the energy use of the reefer unit itself, including experimental (Fitzgerald et al, 2011) and simulation studies (Budiyanto et al, 2019a). Several strategies have been proposed to optimize reefer unit functioning (Filina-Dawidowicz and Filin, 2019;Lukasse et al, 2011;Sorensen et al, 2015;Van Der Sman and Verdijck, 2003) or reefer container design (Copertaro et al, 2016) for energy saving.…”

Section: Bibliometric Inventory Of Key Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reefer container market and academic research: A review study

Castelein

Geerlings

Duin

2020

Journal of Cleaner Production

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The refrigerated (or 'reefer') container market grows rapidly. Researchers and sector stakeholders increasingly realize that this container market segment has its distinct dynamics and demands. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the reefer container sector, its most important characteristics and trends, and a systematic review of the academic literature on reefer containers and logistics. First the authors outline the characteristics, composition, and development of the reefer container market, showing its growth through modal shift (from conventional reefer ships and airfreight) and differentiation into new cargo markets and niche services. Secondly the authors outline reefer chains in terms of their relevant stages, stakeholders, and processes. Data on insurance claims shows that cold chain failure and cargo loss not only occur due to technical failures, but just as often due to organizational errors e especially due to holdup risk at container transfer points. Thirdly the authors map the present knowledge on reefer containers and reefer transportation through a systematic literature review. The current body of research on reefer containers consists mostly of highly specialized, technical studies on product characteristics and quality preservation, monitoring and control, refrigeration technology, and temperature management. While technological advances in these fields have largely enabled the containerization of cold logistics chains, the first sections of this paper also highlight that many current pressing issues in reefer transportation are logistical and organizational in nature. Therefore, the authors propose a research agenda addressing these overlooked aspects, including supply chain coordination issues and implications of reefer market developments for port policy.

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“…A cold chain shipping container is somewhat similar to a refrigerator, but with a larger volume [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. To prolong the shelf lives of products and reduce losses, according to traditional engineering experience, cold chain shipping containers containing food used during road, railway, and water transportation are often designed as cabinet models with uniform air temperature inside [18][19][20][21][22]. The existing control over the temperature inside a container body is actually the control over the temperature at the monitoring points, so it is necessary to numerically simulate the flow field and thermal insulation performance of cold chain shipping containers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of Influencing Factors to the Thermal Insulation Performance of Cold Chain Shipping Containers and Analysis of Internal Flow Field

He¹,

Wang²,

Liu³

2022

IJHT

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Cold chain transportation can prolong the shelf lives of products and reduce losses, so based on the practical applications, it is necessary to numerically simulate the flow field and thermal insulation performance of cold chain shipping containers. Existing studies have achieved optimization by changing the thermal performance and thermal insulation mechanisms of the thermal insulation materials of the containers, but little research has been done on the numerical simulation of the factors affecting the thermal insulation performance of cold chain shipping containers. Therefore, this paper conducts the numerical simulation of the influencing factors to the thermal insulation performance of cold chain shipping container and studies the internal flow field. The structure and air supply diagrams of a cold chain shipping container were given, the thermal insulation performance of the thermal insulation sandwich panels in different surface layers and core layers of the cold chain shipping container was calculated and analyzed, and thermal inertia and heat transfer attenuation performance of the sandwich panels during the unsteady heat transfer process of the container were analyzed. The basic governing equations and assumptions were established for the internal flow field of the cold chain shipping container, and the distribution of the internal flow field was explored. With the impact of the viscosity of air molecules in the cold chain shipping container further ignored, the flow was regarded to be turbulent, and the internal flow field was simulated based on the turbulence-dissipation model. The experimental results were used to analyze the thermal insulation performance of cold chain shipping containers, and analysis results of the flow field where the cold chain shipping containers were stacked in different ways were given.

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Modular modeling of a refrigeration container

Cited by 15 publications

References 9 publications

Influence of Parking Sheds on Energy Efficiency of Road Refrigerated Transport

Influence of Parking Sheds on Energy Efficiency of Road Refrigerated Transport

The reefer container market and academic research: A review study

Numerical Simulation of Influencing Factors to the Thermal Insulation Performance of Cold Chain Shipping Containers and Analysis of Internal Flow Field

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