Freezing Performance of Heat Pipe Integrated Cold Storage Plate Based on Orthogonal Experiments

The vehicle-mounted cold storage plate is an important part of a refrigerated vehicle. Charging time reduction of the cold storage plate has an important role in improving the efficiency of cold chain logistics. A heat pipe integrated cold storage plate was proposed, and the cooling and freezing processes of the cold storage plate were simulated and studied. The reliability of the theoretical model was verified through experiments. The influences of the heat pipe diameter, pipe spacing, refrigerant flow rate in the channel, and Reynolds number on the cooling performance of the cold storage plate were studied using the orthogonal experimental method. Under the condition of a conventional cold storage plate with a single-layer thickness of approximately 50 mm, a pipe diameter of 7 mm, pipe spacing of 39 mm, refrigerant flow rate of 1.2 m/s in the channel, and Reynolds number of 3.89 (optimal parameter), the average freezing time and complete freezing time are 45 min and 78 min, respectively. Compared to the results reported in the literature, the cooling time of the heat pipe integrated cold storage plate under the optimal parameters is significantly reduced.