Numerical analysis of cold energy release process of cold storage plate in a container for temperature control

The increasing need for sustainable and environmentally friendly cooling systems with low emissions has driven the advancement of cold storage technology utilizing phase change material (PCM) for efficient cold energy storage. However, the transportation and monitoring of cold energy status in the container remain challenging, affecting the temperature control of the stored products. To address this problem, this study developed a numerical model using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to analyze the impact of inlet velocity (1.8, 2.4, 3.0, 3.6 and 4.2 m/s) and spacing of the cold storage plate (10, 20 and 30 mm) on the release of cold energy. To validate the accuracy of the numerical model, experiments were conducted, and the results showed good agreement with the predicted values. The study demonstrated that increasing the inlet velocity improves the melting rate from 0.0443 to 0.1064. However, this also resulted in greater differences in the melting rates among the cold storage plates in various locations with poor melting uniformity (uniformity index increases from 0.055 to 0.084 with increasing velocity). On the other hand, increasing the spacing of the cold storage plates was found to reduce the outlet temperature and improve the melting rate and uniformity. The study also showed that the increase in spacing facilitated the maintenance of low temperatures at the outlet for a long time (prolong time from 69 min to 115 min). This study provides quantitative parameters and insights that can guide the design and optimization of cold storage systems.