A Numerical Study On The Performance And Energy Efficiency Improvement Opportunity Of Transport Refrigeration Vehicles In Bangladesh

Abstract

The demand and scope of the transport refrigeration system, as a part of the food cold chain, is likely to increase at a tremendous pace in Bangladesh in the coming years. However, the local transport refrigeration sector is mostly based on retrofitting light-to-medium-duty commercial trucks with refrigerated chambers and emphasizing solely on reducing the chamber temperature to a set value. As a result, performance parameters such as appropriate product storage pattern, clearance within the chamber, airflow distribution, uniformity of temperature, etc. are not maintained following any scientific guideline. The proposed study reports the findings of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study on the performance of the local refrigerated transport vehicles, with an aim to propose solutions for improving the existing scenario. Using the knowledge obtained from the mapping of the transport-refrigerated vehicles in Bangladesh, a numerical investigation is carried out to examine the effect of commonly followed product storage and stacking patterns on the refrigeration performance. For the typical Bangladeshi product-loading scenario, it is found that a considerable temperature gradient exists within the chamber due to poor airflow distribution, resulting in hot spots in some locations. The study also includes the examination and comparison of the performance improvement opportunity if standard practices reported in an earlier study is employed. Preliminary results are reported with the ultimate objective of developing a standard product-loading pattern suitable and implementable in the local context.

Assessment of Thermal performance of Transport Refrigeration Vehicles by Modifications in the Compartment Design and Storage Pattern

“…are safely transported via refrigerated transport system. Active refrigeration system is present in the insulated body of the refrigerated road transport vehicles such as vans and trucks for regulation of temperature [2]. The purpose of a refrigerated transport system is to maintain a uniform temperature of the load which is essential to maintain the quality, safety and extend shelf life of the perishables.…”

“…It was found in a recent study that a total number of 2518 refrigerated vehicles of various type, size and capacity have been imported to Bangladesh between the periods of 1987 to the first-half of 2018 according to the information in the BRTA database [11]. These vehicles are generally seen consisting of direct diesel engine-driven or battery powered refrigeration system but in the case of Bangladesh, the refrigerated transport sector is governed by the diesel engine-driven small and often retrofitted refrigerated trucks and moreover the dimensions of imported refrigerated truck's refrigeration chamber are directly copied by the local body manufacturers without much knowledge on design parameters and they tend to use intuition in order to refit 3-5ton capacity trucks with reverse engineered refrigeration chamber [2]. Cold-chain industry is growing swiftly and refrigerated vehicles are proving to gain popularity in recent years in Bangladesh with an increase of about 500% of registered refrigerated vehicles from the year 2007 to 2017 [11].…”

“…Although potential configurations of air-distribution systems are numerous, only a handful of cases are actually seen in practice [4]. In a recent study, it was observed in a numerical study that storage pattern with specific clearance improved the temperature distribution in comparison to the stockpiling of crates which is generally practiced in Bangladesh [2]. In Bangladesh, during our field survey, it was observed that the crates are kept close to the evaporator side of the refrigerated chamber and there is an ample amount of unused space at the end of the refrigerated chamber (see Fig.…”