Design and Experimental Performance Test of Vapor Compression Refrigeration System Using Isuzu Cargo Space as Cabin for Fruit Transportation

Abstract

Isuzu car is commonly used to transport perishable fruit freight in open cargo such as Tomato, potato, onion, cabbage, banana, and other perishable food stuffs without refrigeration and in open air transport. This mode of transportation exposes the fruit to fluctuating thermal stresses and excessive moisture losses before the fruits reach the market. This thesis focuses on designing vapor compression refrigeration system (VCRS) that can cool the Isuzu open loading space by enclosing it with a rectangular cabin space and testing the experimental performance of a scale down cabin. The dimension of the Isuzu cargo and the scale down cabin were 4.84m x 2.1 m x 2 m and 1.1 m x 0.6 m x 0.5m with cooling load of 4.319 kW and 0.4319 kW, respectively. The cooling load was estimated by considering transmission heat load through cabin, heat extracted from fresh fruit, respiration temperature load of product and entry of unconditioned air. The size of the condenser and evaporator were found to be 21.61m and 26.65m, for the actual cargo and 4.2m and 3.23m the scale down cabinet, respectively. The specific fuel consumption due to power of compressor and mass of cabin is studied. The estimated which increase fuel consumption on engine is 1.34 L/hour. Scale down model was tested for the cooling temperature without and with load of papaya fruit forthree days. Infrared thermometer and thermocouple wires were used to measure temperature and surface of cabin. Experimental work result shows of free load and full load test it takes 45 minute and 1hour to becomes to storage temperature respectively. Using ANSYS WORKBENCH simulation of insulation material with different thickness and different cover material is done the result show fiber glass is the best cover material due thermal conductivity and density.