Increasing the Overall Efficiency of Commercial and Industrial Refrigerated Vehicles by the Application of a Phase Change Technology Developed at the University of Kansas

This project seeks to extend a heat transfer reduction technology, developed at Kansas University (KU), to the transportation sector. In this proposal, the technology is aimed at commercial and industrial applications that use refrigerated and/or climate-controlled (herein referred to as "Refrigerated") trucks to transport perishable goods that require strict temperature control during shipping. The proposed technology offers the potential to save significant amounts of fuel and costs from diesel-driven refrigeration units by reducing the amount of heat transfer across the walls of and into refrigerated van trailers during transportation. The proposed walls of the refrigerated van trailer will consist of the typical, currently used, enclosure-walls, but with the inclusion of phase-change materials (PCMs) integrated in an innovative way to enhance their energy performance capabilities via the high latent heat of fusion of the PCMs. The successful completion of this project will establish a new technology that would represent another step in minimizing the impacts of the Country's energy related problems.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Advanced Research, Advanced Vehicle Technology

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  Office of Research, Development, and Technology
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC    20590
• Project Managers:

  Johnson, Shawn

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kansas, Lawrence

  Transportation Research Institute
  2117 Learned Hall, 1530 W 15th Street
  Lawrence, KS  United States  66045
• Principal Investigators:

  Taghavi, Ray

  Medina, Mario

• Start Date: 20061000
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 16729

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air conditioning systems; Commercial vehicles; Diesel trucks; Refrigerated cargo; Refrigeration (Structures); Refrigerator trucks; Research projects; Temperature control (Vehicles)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01468452
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Research and Innovative Technology Administration
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 3:51PM