Numerical simulation and experimental study on marine cabin's ventilation for reefer containers

In global refrigerated transportation, marine reefers play an extremely important role. Considering the high freight cost and harsh surroundings of the decks during the voyage, reefer containers are always loaded into cabins for safe and economical purpose. However, under severe environment conditions in cabin, the refrigeration efficiency of reefer units was greatly affected, because of the weak ventilation and low heat exchange capacity. In order to find a more scientific and reasonable way to ventilate the cabin of reefer containers, two different ventilation modes, that is, air supply and air exhaust, were experimented and simulated. The temperature distribution was analyzed in a typical reefer cabin with 14.4 m (in length) x 23.2 m (in width) x 16.85 m (in height). Compared with two contrary ventilation modes, the temperature distribution in the cabin at steady state was simulated and analyzed. The results show that, the temperature of the cabin under the air exhaust condition was about 4K lower than that under the air supply condition. But with higher heat dissipation efficiency, the air exhaust condition sacrifices the uniformity of the temperature in the cabin. A relatively uniform temperature distribution and airflow field were obtained under air supply condition. Therefore, considering the heat dissipation effect of the container and the uniformity of airflow distribution, the air supply method was recommended. The two ventilation modes were compared in detail in this paper, and the results provide a reference for ventilation design of reefer container vessels.