Intercomparison of the determination of the K-coefficient of an insulated container as carried out by 11 European test stations

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Industrial research and development

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• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-THE-INFORMATION-SOCIETY-AND-MEDIA-DI
• Nombre de lectures: 24
• Langue: English
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Commission of the European Communities
BCR Information
Applied Metrology
Intercomparison of the determination of the K-coefficient
of an insulated container as carried out
by 11 European test stations Commission of the European Communities
BCR Information
Applied Metrology
Intercomparison of the determination of the K-coefficient
of an insulated container as carried out
by 11 European test stations
A. C. Stera
Lloyd's Register
29, Wellesley Road
Croydon CRO 2AJ
United Kingdom
Contract No 3296/1 /0/147/89/5-BCR-UK(30)
Report
PARI EURO? EiL'iuti.
Directorate-General
Science, Research and Development I ^C.COf] ZSSSS
1991 2 £4-35 I EUR 13285 EN Published by the
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
Directorate-General
Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation
L-2920 Luxembourg
LEGAL NOTICE
Neither the Commission of the European Communities nor any person acting
on behalf of then is responsible for the use which might be made of
the following information
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1991
ISBN 92-826-2396-3 Catalogue number: CD-NA-13285-EN-C
© ECSC-EEC-EAEC, Brussels • Luxembourg, 1991
Printed in Belgium CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
THE CONTAINER 2
ORGANISATION OF THE PROJECT
TASK OF THE OBSERVER 3
TEST METHODOLOGY 4
AIR LEAKAGE 5
OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS 6
RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION 10
K-coefficients (Table I)1
Temperatures and Power Inputs (Table II)2
Surface Areas and Dimensions (Table III)3
Air Velocities and Temperature Span (Table IV) 14
Air Leakage (Table V) 15
DEGREE OF TEST UNCERTAINTY6
Verification of Results (Table VI)7
Measurements Accuracy (Table VII)8
Instruments Recalibration (Table VIII)9
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO ATP 20
APPENDIX 1 - ATP Agreement (Annex, Appendix 2)3
2 - Participating Test Stations 6
3 - Illustrations8
4 - Air Velocities In/Out of the Container 6
5 - Antony Report 65
6 - Cambridge Report7
7-Sample Logs 73
- Ill ELEVEN EUROPEAN TEST STATIONS
CX^* INTRODUCTION
The Commission of the European Communities supported the project described in this report upon the
request of Test Stations for refrigerated trucks and containers in the Member States.
As trade in this field is regulated under the auspices of ATP, the testing stations of the Member States
felt it important to extend the number of participating testing stations to include Austria, Czechoslova­
kia, Poland, Sweden and Finland.
All the participating Test Stations are members of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) whose
Sub-Commission D2 (Tests Group) was responsible for all preparation work on the basis on
which the tests were carried out.
The project originated from the fact that different interpretations by the testing stations of some of the
ATP Agreement 1970 requirements resulted in completely different k-coefficients of the same vehicle
being obtained.
This is not an ideal situation in view of the proximity of the opening of the Internal Market.
Also a main object of the project was to assess whether the present overall accuracy of the k-coefficient
measurement tolerance can be reduced from the present +10% to a more realistic +5%.
An insulated container of verified thermal stability was transported sequencially to all participating
Stations and tested by each in its normal manner.
The tests were witnessed by a single observer from Lloyd's Register of Shipping and form the basis of
this report.
The last comparable tests of the thermal performance of an insulated vehicle were carried out in 1969,
under the auspices of the IIR, see report by R.W.J. Kouffeld and J.A. Knobbout of Central Technical
Institute TNO at Delft, The Netherlands, published by the IIR in 1970.
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
The main purpose of this project is:
1. To verify the accuracy of the measurement of the k-coefficient of a selected insulated container
and the influence of various parameters on the result, with a view to showing that all the partici­
pating Test Stations meet an overall test accuracy of +5%.
2. To facilitate the mutual acceptance of the test reports of different Test Stations in various
countries.
3. To study the methodology and instrumentation used by Test Stations and their influence on the
final result.
4. To compare the results of an air leakage test (at the same pressures) using different instruments,
arrangements and test methods.
5. To discuss the results and findings together with conclusions and recommendations with the Test
Engineers participating in the project, in order to improve the general standard of testing and
make proposals for amendments to the ATP Agreement 1970 in due course.
1 -THE CONTAINER
The Container used during the k-coefficient comparison tests at the eleven European Test Stations was
an ISO 20 ft insulated marine porthole type, manufactured by CONCARGO, UK in 1971 and owned by
SRCRA, Cambridge and marked as below: The Container has been in general use since 1971 and can be
regarded as having stable thermal characteristics, being fully aged but in good condition; see Fig. 1, page
34.
Shipping Company No. ACTU 7002600
Manufacturers No. Concargo - No. 806
Customs No. GB-C301-H-68
The Container principal dimensions are as follows:
Weight - 2550 kg
External dimensions - L = 6.0m; W = 2.42m; H = 2.38m
Root mean square surface area - 65.2m2
Internal volume - approx. 28.4m3
The Container body is comprised of a polyurethane insulation material core covered on both sides with
2.5mm thick glass reinforced plastic (GRP) and with the following thicknesses:
Sides and door - 70mm: Roof - 100mm: Front end - 120mm: Floor - 80mm
The Container had both plenum covers with porthole closing devices removed to make for easy access
to the front end; see Fig 2, page 34.
Lower and upper portholes were blanked with slab polyurethane blocks and sealed by wooden plates
with rubber joints held by nylon bolts, to minimise extra heat ingress and eliminate the air leakage.
A new seal was fitted to the rear door to reduce to a minimum the influence of air leakage on the k-
coefficient measurement. The door occupies the whole of the rear of the Container and comprises of two
parts.
The floor is covered with "T" aluminium profiles, 48mm high at 52mm pitch.
ORGANISATION OF THE PROJECT
Eleven European countries participated in the project, which was partly financed by BCR, Brussels and
commenced at Cambridge in July 1989.
One Test Station was selected from each country and the test programme was carried out in the following
order; for test dates see Table I, page 14.
RVTC, Cambridge - United Kingdom
SGV, Zoeterwoude The Netherlands
CEMAGREF, Antony France
ITV, Madrid - Spain
CNR, Padova Italy
Arsenal, Vienna Austria
TUV, Munich German
VUCHT, Prague - Czechoslovakia
CEBEA, Krakow Poland
Statens Provningsanstalt, Boras - Sweden
Vakola, Vihti Finlan
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