Author’s Accepted Manuscript

The Effect of Solar Radiation on the Energy

Consumption of Refrigerated Container

Muhammad Arif Budiyanto, Takeshi Shinoda

www.elsevier.com/locate/csite

PII: S2214-157X(18)30137-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2018.09.005
Reference: CSITE334
To appear in: Case Studies in Thermal Engineering
Received date: 11 May 2018
Revised date: 1 August 2018
Accepted date: 19 September 2018
Cite this article as: Muhammad Arif Budiyanto and Takeshi Shinoda, The Effect
of Solar Radiation on the Energy Consumption of Refrigerated Container, Case
Studies in Thermal Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2018.09.005
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THE EFFECT OF SOLAR RADIATION ON THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF
REFRIGERATED CONTAINER
Muhammad Arif Budiyantoa*, Takeshi Shinodab

aNaval Architecture and Marine Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia
bDepartment of Marine System Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan

Abstract
Refrigerated containers are a special type of cargo container, equipped with an integral refrigeration unit. External
power supply is required to run the refrigeration system to control the temperatures inside the container during
transporting perishable goods. The amount of power consumption of Refrigerated container will change depending on
many external variables. This paper provides an investigation of the effect of solar radiation on the energy consumption
of Refrigerated container through experimentation. 40ft high cube Refrigerated container is employed as a
measurement object. Environmental parameters have been collected, i.e., solar radiation, surface temperature, and air
temperature. Data analysis shows that the direct effect of solar radiation on the container surface causes the
temperature penetration of the container wall and increases the amount of energy consumption. With the maximum
solar radiation of about 700 W/m2 causes the surface temperature to reach up to 35°C, and the maximum power
consumption reaches 7.5kW/h during the noon.

Keywords: Refrigerated container, energy consumption, solar radiation, environmental parameters, temperature
penetration

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The global container trades are growing year by year with immense cargo volume. In 2014, the global
container trade accounted for 5.3% annual increase from the total international seaborne trade with a
volume of 171 million TEUs [1]. This growth was predicted to continue to increase with large shares from
developing countries that have significant population growth and economic development [2]. Following
the container growth, considerable trade of Refrigerated cargo allows the number of container traffic to
increase [3]. As a consequence, there are tremendous energy consumption and environmental impacts
that follow. In general, total energy consumption by Refrigerated container can be estimated through
multiplying the number of container traffic with energy consumed per container, while the environmental
impacts are assessed from the product of the total energy consumption with the emission factors per
container.
Several studies have investigated the energy consumption of refrigerated containers under given
conditions for a fixed time. From the measurement of 20 feet and 40 feet Refrigerated containers, the
overall mean rate of energy consumption is around 3.6 kW per TEU [4]. The other investigator conducted
experimentation by using temperatures ranging from −18 to +13.4 °C, which gave the energy consumption
values between 4.42 kW and 8.63 kW respectively [5]. The other study assumed the mean energy
consumption rate of the Refrigerated container to be 2.7 kW/TEU and indicated potential variations of
around 60% due to various factor [6]. The amount of energy consumed by Refrigerated container will
change depending on many external variables. A thermal study of a container for international transport
was investigated considering the environment effect. The ambient temperature, particularly the solar
effect, has a significant influence on the internal temperature [7]. The average sun-to-shade difference for
external temperature reaches more than 7°C, and walls exposed to the sun radiation show a clear
difference in thermal patterns compared to the shade ones [8]. In the previous study, Shinoda and
Budiyanto [7] found that the energy consumption at the reefer storage yard contributes to half of the total
electricity consumption and estimated to be continuously increasing over the year. Energy efficiency
measures and strategies are rarely present in this area. The inadequate literature survey about the energy
consumption of refrigerated container motivates us to provide the baseline of energy consumption of the
refrigerated container for further development of energy efficiency measures. This study aims to
investigate the energy consumption of refrigerated container from the viewpoint of solar radiation effect.
The energy consumption of refrigerated container would be measured under three different weather
conditions to get the baseline of the power condition under that condition.
2.0 METHODOLOGY
The objective of the measurement experimentation is to understand the thermal exchange process
between the Refrigerated container and the external environment, particularly to measure and verify the
effect of solar radiation in the energy consumption of Refrigerated container. In this study, the 40 feet high
cube Refrigerated container is used as a measurement object. The dimension of the high cube
Refrigerated container is 12.1-meter length, 2.4-meter width, and 2.8-meter height [9]. The structure
consisted of ceiling wall, side walls, floor, and corner metal casting foundation. Inside space of Refrigerated
container mainly serves as the cargo hold; the floor is equipped with T-grating functioning as the air
circulator of the refrigeration system, which is attached at the end of the spaces. The container walls are
composed of three layers of different materials that are aluminium, polyurethane, and stainless steel with a
thickness of 0.8 mm, 90 mm, and 0.9 mm respectively. The thermal conductivity of these materials are 204
W/mK, 0.03 W/mK, and 16 W/mK respectively.
The measurement experimentation was conducted at Hakata Island City Container Terminal, Fukuoka,
Japan. The layout of the Refrigerated container storage yard has an azimuth angle of 334.185° from North,
and Refrigerated container’s placement faces the west [10]. Therefore, the orientation of the Refrigerated
container comply with the following rules - the Refrigerated unit is facing the west, the door is facing the
east, one side wall is facing the south, and one side wall is facing the north. Details of the experimentation
location and orientation are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Location and orientation of the measurement experimentation

Place Hakata Island City Container Terminal
Degree of longitude 130.40° (130°24'04.24''E)
Degree of latitude 33.65° (33°39'31.15''N)
Altitude above sea-level 2.5 m
Time zone Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) +9h
Orientation of Refrigerated 334.185° from North (Wall Azimuth)
container
Detail orientation

To measure various weather conditions under the solar exposure, the experiment was performed during
the summer season from August through October in 2015. Therefore, several devices and sensors are
employed to collect environmental circumstances. The used devices and sensors are pyranometer, power
meter, thermocouple, and weather station. Figure 1 shows the measurement devices and the arrangement
of the sensor location. Pyranometer is placed on the top building facility of the Refrigerated container
storage yard to measure solar radiation. There are 5 pyranometers on the horizontal and vertical plane in
all cardinal direction (Figure 1.a). Thermocouples are used to measure surface temperature (Figure 1.c). All
pyranometer are installed inside and outside the container surfaces with the total are 20 points, the
arrangement is shown in Figure 1.d. 5 sensors are attached at the middle points of the inside surfaces, i.e.
floor, sidewall, ceiling, and the center. On the outside surface, 15 sensors are attached on each surface at
the middle point, including fan and compressor surfaces. Power meter measures the energy and the
consumption, which is set on the power plug station near the measurement object (Figure 1.b). Weather
station is also employed to measure wind speed and direction, and is placed in the building offices. The
measurement data from all the devices are recorded every minute in various weather conditions.
 (a) (b) (c)

(d)
Fig 1 Measurement devices and arrangement of thermocouples (a) Pyranometer in all directions (b) Electric power meter
(c) Set of thermocouples (d) Arrangement of Thermocouples

3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Solar Radiation
Figure 2 shows the summary of solar intensity during the experiment. Generally, the weather condition can
be categorized as sunny and rainy condition. The sunny condition represents a clear sky when the solar
radiation illuminates the earth’s surface with the maximum intensity. Contrariwise, the rainy condition
causes exposure of the earth’s surface to the solar radiation with the minimum intensity. During one
measurement experimentation, it’s difficult to record the sunny condition of the whole day due to various
climatic factors. In a day, the weather condition changes from time to time due to the factors such as
cloud condition, effect of rainfall, wind, etc. Therefore, for each measurement location, it will have a time
period with different measurement ranges. The feature of solar radiation for the sunny and rainy condition is
presented here.
The feature of solar radiation in the sunny condition for the whole day that was captured on 22nd
September 2015 is shown in Figure 3.a The maximum solar radiation occurs on the south and west surface.
Highest solar radiation reaches up 850 W/m2 on the south surface at 10:00 AM, while on the west surface,
highest occurs at 03:00 PM. Ceiling surface received maximum solar radiation of about 700 W/m2 at noon.
The peak of solar radiation on the east surface is about 500 W/m2 at around 8:30 AM. Then, on the north
surface, the lowest received solar radiation is about 100 W/m2. The intensity of solar radiation has a
different trend line for each surface. The trend line of solar radiation is influenced by the solar position and
the orientation of the surface [11]. The solar position depends on the altitude and azimuth angle of sun.
Thus, the orientation depends on the location and wall azimuth angle [12].
Figure 3.b shows the feature of solar radiation on the rainy condition that was captured on 27th October
2015. The feature of solar radiation of each surface is entirely different from the sunny condition. All surfaces
received equal solar radiation on the same trend line. The average solar radiation is below 100W/m2 during
noon. This condition indicates that the solar radiation did not reach the surface because the sky is overcast
with clouds. This condition possibly gives benefit to the performance of Refrigerated container. Radiation
incident on a surface that does not have a direct view of the sun consists of diffused and reflected
radiation. Therefore, at sunny noon, solar radiations incident on the east, west, and north surfaces of a
south-facing house are identical since they all consist of diffused and reflected component.

3.2 Surface Temperature

Temperature is the most significant parameter for evaluating the performance of Refrigerated container.
The characteristics of temperature change in the Refrigerated container on the sunny and rainy condition
are explained. Figure 4.a shows the temperature variations of outside and inside of container walls on the
sunny condition. The temperature of all the outside surfaces starts to increase from 06:30 AM, except for the
bottom surface. The three surfaces that are subjected to significant increased temperature at a specific
time are the south, ceiling, and west surface. Temperature on these surfaces reaches upto 35°C at 10:00
AM, 12:00 PM, 03:00 PM on the south, ceiling and west surface respectively. The temperature of the east
surface slightly increased during 07:00 AM – 08:00 AM with the maximum temperature of 25°C. For the other
surfaces, i.e. north and bottom surface, the temperature increases are not significant, particularly on the
bottom surface, the temperature tends to remain constant. Furthermore, the temperature inside the
container also manages to remain constant in all points of measurements. The highest temperature is 2°C
on the south walls, and the lowest temperature is 0°C on the floor, which is consistent with the pre-set
condition of the refrigeration machine.
Focusing on the outside surface of container, the trend of surface temperature variation is consistent with
the feature of solar radiation, received on the walls in the sunny condition. The correlation shows that the
maximum temperature occurs at the time of maximum solar energy received on the wall is significant.
Surface temperatures increase because of radiation energy, known as blackbody energy, impinging on
the surface in the form of electromagnetic waves will warm up the surface and become the source of
radiation. Thus, the amount of the energy that is absorbed by the surface is converted into thermal energy
and raises its temperature. Thermal energy, in the form of heat transfer, depends on the physical properties
of its material. Concerning the effects of solar radiation, the essential parameter is the radiation property of
the container surface. The solar radiation heats up a surface through absorption, reflection, or transmission
of energy. Outside surface of the container is composed of the aluminium with a white color coating;
aluminium is a low absorption metal, and the white coating has excellent properties to reflect the solar
radiation [13, 14].
Figure 3.b shows the inside and outside temperature of the container on rainy condition. The all outside
temperature lies on the same trend lines with an average of 19°C. All surface temperatures increases
during 11:30 AM - 01:00 PM with a maximum temperature of 29°C, except the bottom surface. The
temperature inside the container also tends to be constant with an average temperature of 0°C. These
results suggest that the temperature changes in the rainy condition are consistent with the feature of solar
radiation received on the walls. On the rainy condition, the intensity of the direct solar radiation, incident
on the container surfaces, is weak. As a consequence, radiation energy is not sufficient to increase the
surface temperature. Thus, the effect of air temperature is more dominant on the surface.

3.3 Power Consumption

Figure 5 shows a comparison of the power consumption in the sunny and rainy condition. In the sunny
condition, the initial power consumption is 7.3kW, and the maximum power consumption reaches 7.5kW at
noon. The power consumption of Refrigerated container starts rising from 07:00 AM, then reaches the
maximum consumption at 13:00 AM. However, the starting time of rising power consumption slightly shifted
from the starting time of increasing temperatures. This circumstance of temperature delay is due to the
effect of heat capacity of the insulation material [15, 16, 17, 18].
 The power consumption in the rainy condition has a different trend compared with the power
consumption in the sunny condition. The average power consumption is around 7.3 kW, and the trend line
tends to be constant. The energy consumption slightly increased during 12:00 -13:00 PM, and the maximum
consumption reached a value of 7.4kW. This trend is in accordance with the temperature changes that
occur on the surface and the environment and air surrounding the container.
The trend and order of surface temperature of each container show that the thermal characteristic
depends on the position of surface with respect to direct solar radiation exposure. Increased solar radiation
on the wall will increase the surface temperatures; the surface temperatures represent the performance of
the refrigerator container and will cause an increase in the energy consumption. The measurement result
shows that the trend line of the power consumption is similar to the changes of air temperature at the
ceiling and environment air. The result is consistent with the previous result, which shows the effect of
staking refrigerated container on the energy consumption by [19].

Fig 2 Intensity of solar radiation during the measurement experimentation

(a)
 (b)
Fig 3 Measurement results for the solar radiation (a) The feature of solar radiation in sunny condition (b) The feature of
solar radiation in rainy condition

(a)
 (b)
Fig 4 Measurement results for the surface temperatures (a) The feature of surface temperatures in sunny condition (b)
The feature of surface temperatures in rainy condition

Fig 5 Power consumption in sunny and rainy condition

3.4 Heat Transfer Processes through Container Walls

To understand the process of heat conduction, convection, and radiation occurring in a Refrigerated
container, consider a wall, having one surface exposed to solar radiation and the other surface facing
inside the container, the illustration is shown in Figure 6. From the total solar radiation incident on the outer
surface of the wall, a part of it is reflected back to the environment. The remaining part is absorbed by the
wall and converted into heat energy. A part of the energy is again lost to the environment through
convection and radiation from the wall’s outer surface. The remaining part is conducted along the wall
where it is partly stored, thereby raising the wall temperature, while the rest reaches inside the cargo
container’s interior surface. Heat exchanges like these take place through opaque elements in all part of
container walls such as ceiling wall and side walls.

Fig 6 Heat transfer processes through the container wall

The heat transfer processes start from radiation heat exchange from the solar energy to the container
surface. Radiation is the heat transfer from a body by virtue of its temperature; it increases as the
temperature of the body increases. It does not require any physical medium for propagation. When two or
more bodies at different temperatures exchange heat by radiation, heat will be emitted, absorbed, and
reflected by each body [20, 21]. This type of radiation consists of short wavelength radiation for solar
energy and long wavelength for the heat emitted by the exterior surfaces. The heat received by the
surface then will be emitted, absorbed, and reflected by each body due to the thermal properties of its
material. Then, the net rate of radiation heat transfer from the sun surface exposed to the inside of the
container is determined from following energy balance:

qnet  Gsolar  qreflection  qemission  qconvection

(1)

Wherein is the total solar energy incident on unit area of a horizontal surface, is the
reflected radiation, is the emitted radiation, and is the thermal convection due to air
velocity. The net rate of radiation is very important for further investigation in calculating the cooling load of
the Refrigerated container.

3.5 Heat Flow through Container Walls

The heat flow through the container walls is assumed to be equal with the energy consumption by
refrigeration unit to keep a constant temperature inside. The calculation of the heat flow is determined
from the heat transfer across the outside surface into the inside surface, which can be obtained from the
temperature differences between the outside and inside surface of the container walls. The amount of the
heat transfer is obtained from the temperature differences between the outside and inside surface of the
container walls. The outside temperature is taken from the external surface temperature, which is
influenced by the solar radiation. Inside temperature is taken from the interior surface temperature, which is
influenced by the air inside the container that was set to zero degree temperature. The total heat flow of a
Refrigerated container is contributed mainly by the wall, which has a large surface area, i.e. ceiling, south,
north, and bottom. The illustration of the total heat flow for a Refrigerated container is shown in Figure 7.
The heat flow of the container wall is calculated from the following equations [22]:

qwall  K  A   T  (2)
qTotal  qCeiling  qSouth  qNorth  qBottom (3)

1 (4)
K n
1 xi 1
 
i i 1 i o
Equation 2 is for calculating the heat flow across the wall of the Refrigerated container, and Equation 3 is
for calculating the total heat from each wall, i.e. ceiling, south, north and bottom side. A represents the
area of the wall surface (m2), and ΔT represents the temperature difference between inside and outside of
the container (°C). Thus, K represents the overall heat transfer coefficient of the container wall, calculated
using the Equation 4. In this equation, λ represents the thermal conductivity of each material, and x
represent the thickness of the insulation materials. Then, α represents the convection heat transfer
coefficient for the outside and inside air layer, the values for this coefficient is 23 W/m.K and 9 W/m.K
respectively. The calculation of the overall heat transfer coefficient of the container wall obtained a result
of 0.44 W/m2.K. The heat flow of the Refrigerated container is calculated for the sunny and rainy conditions.

Fig 7 Estimation of the heat flow for a Refrigerated container

In this section, the calculation of heat flow uses the surface temperature of the Refrigerated container
from the measurement experiment that was conducted on 25 th September 2015 (Sunny) and 27th
September 2015 (Rainy) with the duration time from 06:00 – 18:00. From the calculation, the heat flow is
1248.59 Watt for sunny condition and 1083.87 Watt for rainy condition, and estimated energy difference of
the solar radiation effect is 15.20%. These results suggest that the heat flow analysis can be considered as
the estimation method to predict the energy difference as a result of the effect of solar radiation [23, 24].

CONCLUSION
Various thermal exchanges occurred between a Refrigerated container and the environmental factors.
The essential factors in the thermal exchange processes are the environmental condition, mainly the heat
from the sun that affects the ambient air and surface temperature. The trend of surface temperature
change is consistent with the feature of solar radiation received by the walls. The correlation shows that the
maximum temperature occurs linearly with the maximum solar energy received by the container surfaces.
This condition caused the energy consumption of Refrigerated container also to increase due to the heat
penetration of the container wall. The measurement result found that the maximum power consumption
reaches 7.5kW/h on the sunny condition with the maximum solar radiation of about 700 W/m2, and the
average power consumption on the rainy condition decrease to 7.3kW/h with the average solar radiation
of about 150 W/m2 during noon. This result gives direction on the further research and usage in practice
that the solar radiation from the sun will affect the energy consumption of refrigerated container.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to express gratitude to the crews of Hakata Port Terminal Corporation for
collaborative research in the experiment by providing required data during this research, and the
suggestions for relating future research. The authors also would like to thank the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia. This article’s publication is supported by the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Sustainable Higher Education
Research Alliance (SHERA) Program for Universitas Indonesia’s Scientific Modeling, Application, Research
and Training for City-centered Innovation and Technology (SMART CITY) Project, Grant #AID-497-A-1600004,
Sub Grant #IIE-00000078-UI-1.

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