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

Abstract

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.