Cong, Lin (2020). Advanced cold energy storage materials for a lightweight refrigerated vehicle. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.
|
Cong2020PhD.pdf
Text Available under License All rights reserved. Download (73MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Cold-chain transportation is essential for temperature sensitive perishable products. Currently, various vehicle refrigeration systems are used to provide cooling power for temperature controlled vehicles. However, conventional refrigeration systems powered by fossil fuel have high energy consumption and give unwanted emissions from the vehicles. An alternative approach is needed to reduce the negative impact of such vehicles without compromising the performance of the temperature control. The use of cold energy storage provides a promising alternative approaches for temperature controlled vehicles through offering reliable cold energy while eliminating the emission of the vehicles at the same time. Cold storage using phase change materials (PCMs) has attracted a lot of attention in recent decades because of their thermoproperties and material property driven temperature self-control.
This work focuses on the development of PCMs with phase transition temperatures of −25 ◦C and −33 ◦C for refrigerated transportation. Salt-water based PCMs are targeted for such an application. To improve the properties of the PCMs, thermal conductivity enhancers, and nucleation and thickening/gelling agents are used in the formulation to form composite PCMs.
Those composite PCMs are characterised and the data show that the thermal conductivity and stability of the PCMs are enhanced and the supercooling effect is suppressed effectively due to the addition of modifiers.
The cold loss of a refrigerated container with PCM based cold storage is studied. A High level of energy efficiency can be achieved by installing an air curtain. To demonstrate the effectiveness of it, CFD simulations are carried out on temperature and air velocity distribution. The results show a significant decrease of cold loss.
| Type of Work: | Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Award Type: | Doctorates > Ph.D. | |||||||||
| Supervisor(s): |
|
|||||||||
| Licence: | All rights reserved | |||||||||
| School or Department: | School of Chemical Engineering | |||||||||
| Funders: | None/not applicable | |||||||||
| Other Funders: | Hubbard Products Ltd. | |||||||||
| Subjects: | T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) | |||||||||
| URI: | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/10981 |
Actions
 |
Request a Correction |
 |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year