THERMAL ANALYSIS OF AIRFLOW

INSIDE A REFRIGERATED
CONTAINER
Nuri Kayansayan , Ersin Alptekin , Mehmet Akif Ezan

By- K.KAMAL RAJ

(01FB16EME079)
 ABSTRACT
 The
internal and the external flows of a refrigerated truck are
numerically studied.
 The effect of Reynolds number and the aspect ratio on
effectiveness are illustrated.
 Heattransfer correlations are provided for the ceiling-slot type
containers.
 Theeffect of slot size on container cooling performance is
presented.
WHY DO WE NEED
REFRIGERATION?
 PROBLEM DEFINITION
 Thephysical model under analysis is a three dimensional
cavity.
 The front panel of the container sustains the refrigeration
equipment and hence reinforced by additional supporting
thick layers with low thermal conductivity.
 The outside surfaces of conductive walls are opaque, and
temperature gradient between the outer surface and the
ambient causes radiative and convective heat exchange
with the outside ambient which moves at a certain velocity.
THE AIM OF THIS RESEARCH WORK
 Container shape factor (L /
H).
 The inlet air slot width (l6 /
W).
 The Reynolds number of
supplied cold air(Re).
 H =2.5 m W =2.46 m
 Container length assumes
values of L = 6.13 m, 8.33 m,
13.3 m sequentially.
 Case 1( l6 / W = 0.5),the
injection slot has the
dimensions of 123 × 9.7 cm,
and the corresponding
suction slot is 123 × 23.4 cm.
The construction material for the conductive walls
is composed of a layer of polyurethane foam (70
mm) sandwiched between two layers of very thin
(0.5 mm) sheet metal of steel.
3-D VIEW AND THE OVERALL DIMENSIONS OF
THE EXPERIMENTAL TRUCK
 CONDUCTIVE MODEL

However, due to effect of solar radiation, the

container gains heat as following,
PRESENTATION OF COMPUTATIONAL DOMAIN OF flOW
AROUND THE TRUCK.
EFFECT OF MESH SIZE ON VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION AT
THE SYMMETRY SURFACE FOR RE=10^5 AND L/H =
5.32
VALIDATION TEST : LENGTHWISE VARIATION OF
VELOCITY PROFILES AT (X-Y) SYMMETRY PLANE
 STREAMLINES OF FOW AROUND THE
TRUCK AT SEVERAL CROSS-SECTIONS.
FLOW STRUCTURE AT TWO DIFFERENT ASPECT RATIOS
FOR VARIOUS REYNOLDS NUMBERS.
FLOW BEHAVIOR OF THE CONTAINER WITH L/H
= 5.32 AT VARIOUS REYNOLDS NUMBERS
ISOTHERMS OF THE CONTAINER WITH L/H
= 5.32 AT VARIOUS REYNOLDS NUMBERS
 CONCLUSION
 The external flow around a typical refrigerated truck with
containers having aspect ratios of 2.45,3.33,and 5.32 is analyzed
and the corresponding outer surface heat transfer coefficients of
conductive walls are determined for turbulent flow conditions
 Referring to temperature distribution effectiveness,the container
with an aspect ratio of 3.33 at half-span injection shows the
highest effectiveness for the range of Reynolds numbers (Re)
studied
 Results from the analysis of air ventilation indicate that at LH=5 32
. and Re = 2x 10 4, the ventilation effectiveness is less than unity
(η<1) and the velocities are close to zero in almost half of the
container