NUMERICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND VALIDATION OF THE THERMAL RESPONSE OF AN EMPTY ISO CONTAINER EXPOSED TO REAL WEATHER CONDITIONS

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a computational model of the thermal behavior of an ISO container exposed to real weather conditions. A thorough understanding of this process can allow for the design or orientation of ISO containers to minimize exposure and maximize lifespan of its contents. Currently, the thermal history of assets in storage cannot be determined without continuous monitoring of individual items, and there is no method to provide a detailed estimate of the exposure by analyzing existing data when continuous data was not collected. This work describes the experimental and initial numerical investigations of an instrumented empty ISO container to characterize the thermal response. Thermocouple data collected through long-term field experiments of an empty ISO container were used to develop and validate the numerical model, which includes combined effects from natural convection and radiation inside a 3D enclosure, as well as external forced convection, conduction, and solar radiation. It is found that the numerical model has the capability to validate broad trends observed from the experimental data over two noncontinuous days of varying cloud cover in a computationally efficient manner. The overall accuracy and computational efficiency afforded by the numerical model will advance the understanding of the implications of storage environment selection, as well as provide key predictive information for future investigations into the thermal exposure of contents in a loaded ISO container.