Assessment of insulating package performance by mathematical modelling

Abstract

A mathematical model has been developed in the present work to describe the temperature change in a typical insulated shipping container as a function of time. The model was created by combining steady state and transient models in a 2D geometry of a typical shipping container and was subsequently validated by an ice melt test and comparison of temperature change obtained from the model and experimental measurement. An excellent agreement was obtained between the computational model developed in this work and experimental results. In addition, a parametric study was also carried out to investigate various factors in controlling the insulation performance of the packaging. It was found that the model has capability of evaluating the effect of a wide range of packaging design parameters such as thermal conductivity, surface emissivity, packaging geometry, and sounding temperature.