IIR document

Ageing of refrigerated truck insulation.

Summary

The insulation of refrigerated trucks is characterized by a coefficient of global insulation, also called K coefficient. The K value is determined according to ATP protocol (International Agreement for the Transport of Perishables Goods of the United Nations). The insulation is decreasing during the lifetime of the equipment and the K value is increasing. This ageing depends on several criteria such as the level of maintenance by the owner, the temperature of the transported product, the average load carried, and the number of kilometers per year. It also depends on the construction technique, the options, the manufacturer and the insulation material. For decades ageing coefficients were used to estimate the evolution of the performances of the equipment. In order to keep the insulation under the legal limits of 0.4 or 0.7 W/K.m2 the insulation of new bodies was quite high. With the changes of insulation materials and blowing agent in the early 2000’s and the progress in construction techniques, the ageing coefficients were no longer valid and were abandoned. Without any historical data it was impossible to calculate or even estimate the ageing coefficients of new materials or construction.
Cemafroid is testing hundreds of insulated bodies per year for 12 or more years. For a few years the tested equipment are insulated with foams of the last generation HFC free. We have now enough data to make a statistical analysis of the insulation ageing through 12 years of operation. 110 tests of K values have been analyzed in detail for this study. Their K value after 12 years is compared to the one of the prototype of reference taking into account the manufacturer, the model of the equipment, the owner, the type of utilization. The ageing obtained will also be compared to the ageing equipment of the previous generations insulated with R141b or R11 blown foams.
This paper presents the data collection, their statistical analysis and the results on ageing of the insulation of the bodies constructed without HFC. The study will also compare this ageing to the ageing of previous generations of equipment.

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Details

  • Original title: Ageing of refrigerated truck insulation.
  • Record ID : 30017553
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 4th IIR International Conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain. Proceedings: Auckland, New Zealand, April 7-9, 2016.
  • Publication date: 2016/04/07
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18462/iir.iccc.2016.0027

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