The project "Simulation of Ventilation in Modular Refrigerated Containers", delivered for Titan Containers in 2025, addressed a practical process and manufacturing challenge through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Rather than producing simulation images in isolation, the study was organised around the client's design questions: what controlled performance, where the principal risks or losses occurred, and how the design or operating strategy could be improved.

This project investigated airflow, heat transfer, and cooling performance in a mobile, modular refrigerated container. Through advanced 3D CFD simulations, several configurations of refrigeration unit arrangements were assessed to determine how to achieve uniform air distribution and effective cooling under realistic operating conditions. The models incorporated key details such as lighting loads, internal obstacles, and heat losses through walls and ceilings, providing an accurate representation of real-world performance. The analysis revealed that warm pockets tend to form near the ceiling due to limited vertical air circulation and recirculation effects. One configuration achieved better overall cooling efficiency even with fewer refrigeration units, showing the importance of system layout. The study demonstrated that the positioning and arrangement of units strongly influence temperature uniformity. It also recommended strategies such as optimised fan configurations, adjustable air louvers, and transient testing, as well as exploring renewable energy integration to improve long-term efficiency and sustainability.

The methodology centred on a three-dimensional airflow and heat-transfer CFD model of the mobile refrigerated container. The representation retained the refrigeration units, fans, internal obstacles, lighting loads and wall and ceiling heat gains controlling circulation and cooling uniformity. Boundary and operating conditions covered several refrigeration-unit arrangements and realistic operating loads, including the vertical heat movement that can create warm ceiling pockets, with material, fluid and equipment properties assigned from the available design information. Resolution was concentrated in regions where steep velocity, thermal, concentration or phase gradients were expected, while the overall model remained efficient enough to compare several credible configurations. This balance allowed system-level performance to be linked to the local mechanisms responsible for it.

The assessment compared unit position, fan configuration, adjustable louvres and operational or future energy-integration measures. Performance was judged using temperature uniformity, warm-pocket volume, air distribution, recirculation, cooling effectiveness and the performance achieved per installed refrigeration unit. Results were reviewed through quantitative summaries and engineering visualisations, such as contours, vectors, streamlines, sections and time histories, selected to suit the physics. Important assumptions and operating uncertainties were considered so that the recommendations relied on repeatable comparative trends rather than a single nominal case.

For Titan Containers, the principal value was a better equipment layout and a clear route to transient testing and longer-term efficiency improvement. The final evidence linked each recommendation to the relevant model or process output, making it suitable for internal design reviews, supplier or contractor discussions and, where applicable, planning, safety or regulatory dialogue. The work also created a reusable baseline that can be updated as geometry, operating data or test results become available, reducing the cost and risk of later design iterations.