FACTORS AFFECTING THE AGEING OF REFRIGERATED TRANSPORT EQUIPMENT

摘要

The performance of insulated enclosures for refrigerated vehicles is usually characterized by their overallinsultation coefficient (“K coefficient”). The insulation performance is ageing during the time. This ageingaffects the refrigeration and environmental performances of the vehicles and may have a significant cost ontheir exploitation as well as on their lifetime. To better understand the phenomena involved in the ageingprocess, experimental assessment of the real ageing based on key life periods of a representative number ofvehicles was performed. This assessment highlighted the discrepancy between the K coefficient of in-servicevehicles and their prototypes, while the international agreement and the current Regulation base theirperformance classification on prototypes, not on series products. This analysis also allowed to evaluate theimpact of some vehicles accessories on the ageing.