Thermal behavior of a refrigerated vehicle: Process simulation

Abstract

Food transportation is a very sensitive process to human health. In the present work an analysis of the thermal behavior of a refrigerated vehicle for food transport is developed, with the purpose of predicting the temperature distribution inside it. The comparison between experimental data measured with the help of encapsulated sensor of temperature DS18B20, and numerical data obtained through the computational dynamics of CFD fluids is made, using the CFX module of ANSYS WORKBENCH 16.0. A quasi-experimental methodology is proposed, based on simulation, in order to estimate the internal temperature in four critical points of the vehicle, and verify if there are heat losses. The numerical results obtained have similarities, when compared with the measured temperature values. The maximum deviation is 0.43 °C, acceptable for this type of engineering application.