SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE INSULATION PROPERTIES OF A THERMALLY INSULATED TRANSPORT UNIT

Abstract

A system for evaluating insulation properties of a thermally insulated transport unit contains at least one thermally insulated transport unit for transporting and/or storing goods. The thermally insulated transport unit contains at least one temperature sensor configured to provide actual temperature data of the temperature within the thermally insulated transport unit. The system also includes at least one evaluation component for evaluating the insulation properties, at least based on a comparison of actual temperature data and calculated temperature data based on a thermal model of the thermally insulated transport unit.

Claims

1. A system for evaluating the insulation properties of a thermally insulated transport unit, comprising: at least one thermally insulated transport unit for transporting and/or storing goods, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit comprises at least one temperature sensor means configured to provide actual temperature data of a temperature within the at least one thermally insulated transport unit; and at least one evaluation means for evaluative the insulation properties of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, at least based on a comparison of the actual temperature data and a calculated temperature data based on a thermal model of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit further comprises a memory means for storing the actual temperature data.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit further comprises at least one communication means configured to establish a communication with a separate computer unit, and wherein the at least one evaluation means are located in the separate computer unit.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit further comprises a computer unit, and wherein the at least one evaluation means are located in the computer unit of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein insulation of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit comprises at least one vacuum insulation panel (VIP).

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit does not comprise any active cooling elements.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit further comprises a position determining unit.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit comprises a further sensor means configured to provide: actual temperature data of a temperature outside of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, humidity data of an air humidity the at least one thermally insulated transport unit is exposed to, acceleration data of an acceleration to which the at least one insulated transport unit is exposed to, and/or solar data of a duration and intensity of solar radiation the at least one thermally insulated transport unit is exposed to.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one evaluation means are configured to execute an evaluation algorithm, for determining the insulation properties of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one evaluation means are configured to issue an evaluation message indicating the insulation properties of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, wherein the evaluation message is at least one of the following messages: a recommendation message providing a recommendation about a further use of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, an alarm message indicating a critical loss of insulation capacity of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, an inspection message indicating that the at least one thermally insulated transport unit has to be inspected by a service technician, and/or a suspension message indicating a time for how long the at least one insulated transport unit can still be used until failure occurs.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the system further comprises a display and/or audio output means outputting the evaluation message of the at least one evaluation means.

12. A method, comprising: configuring the system according to claim 1 to evaluate the insulation properties of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit.

13. A method, comprising: transporting and storing goods in the at least one thermally insulated transport unit of the system according to claim 1, comprising the at least one temperature sensor means configured to provide actual temperature data of the temperature within the at least one thermally insulated transport unit.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit is configured to transport medical and pharma products.

15. A method, comprising: evaluating the insulation properties of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit in the system according to claim 1, based on the calculated temperature data based on the thermal model of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit.

16. The system according to claim 5, wherein the at least one thermally insulated transport unit further comprises cooling elements and/or phase change materials (PCM) as further cooling capacity.

17. The system according to claim 7, wherein the position determining unit is a Global Positioning System (GPS) or a position determining unit using a positioning determination algorithm based on signals in a Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN).

18. The system according to claim 7, wherein the position determining unit is configured to allocate temperature data based on positioning information data.

19. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one evaluation means is configured to execute the evaluation algorithm based on results of a machine-learning algorithm an online simulation via Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods; and/or a semi-empirical correlation and/or calculation of a heat transfer by considering phase change materials, engineer rules, and material properties.

20. The method according to claim 12, further comprising: configuring the system to issue an evaluation message indicating the insulation properties of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, a recommendation message providing a recommendation about a further use of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, an alarm message indicating a critical loss of insulation capacity of the at least one thermally insulated transport unit, an inspection message indicating that the at least one thermally insulated transport unit has to be inspected by a service technician, and/or a suspension message indicating a time for how long the at least one insulated transport unit can still be used until failure occurs.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] In the following, the invention is described exemplarily with reference to the enclosed figure, in which

[0038] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT

[0039] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a system for evaluating the insulation properties of a thermally insulated transport 10 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

[0040] The system 10 comprises a thermally insulated transport unit 20 for transporting and/or storing goods. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the thermally insulated transport unit/box 20 is a so-called passive box comprising an outer material, an insulation layer and a phase change material (PCM) as cooling capacity. Such a thermally insulated transport unit 20 could be provided by a box, packaging, carton, etc. The height of such a thermally insulated transport unit 20 is preferably between 100 mm and 1200 mm, more preferably between 200 mm and 1000 mm and most preferably between 500 mm and 800 mm. The length and/or width of such a thermally insulated transport unit 20 is preferably between 100 mm and 1200 mm, more preferably between 200 mm and 1000 mm and most preferably between 500 mm and 800 mm.

[0041] But for the thermally insulated transport unit 20 also larger dimensions are possible. The thermally insulated transport unit 20 may be a container (unit load devices). For example, a container for airfreight has in particular a volume in the range of 1 m.sup.3 to 50 m.sup.3, preferably 1 to 30 m.sup.3, more preferably 1 to 20 m.sup.3, most preferably 1 to 15 m.sup.3.

[0042] Furthermore, the thermally insulated transport unit 20 is, for example, used as cooling container for clinical trial supply.

[0043] For example, the thermally insulated transport unit 20 in form of such a container has a height, length and/or width in the range of 50 cm to 500 cm, preferably 60 cm to 400 cm, more preferably 70 cm to 300 cm, most preferably 80 cm to 200 cm. However, the present disclosure is not limited to these preferred dimension, i.e. deviations from these dimensions are possible.

[0044] The thermally insulated transport unit 20 comprises at least one temperature sensor 30 in form of a so-called temperature logger 30 for capturing the actual temperature data within the thermally insulated transport unit 20. In the preferred embodiment, the temperature logger 30 also comprises memory means for storing the actual temperature data.

[0045] The system 10, here the thermally insulated transport unit 20, further comprises a computer unit 40, wherein the computer unit 40 hosts at least one evaluation means for evaluating the insulation properties of the thermally insulated transport unit 20 by comparing the actual temperature data provided by the temperature logger 30 and the calculated temperature data based on a thermal model of the thermally insulated transport unit 20. In this respect, the computer unit 40 is configured to execute a respective evaluation algorithm. As a result, the quality of the transport unit 20 can be assessed by the comparison of a theoretical/calculated temperature curve (to-be) and the measurement of the actual temperature curve during the shipment (as-is). Based on the delta between the as-is and to-be curve, the quality of the transport unit 20 can be estimated. Moreover, in the preferred embodiment, the evaluation means are also configured to issue an evaluation message indicating the insulation properties of the transport unit 20, wherein the message is at least one of the following messages: a recommendation message providing a recommendation about a further use of the transport unit 20, an alarm message indicating a critical loss of insulation capacity of the transport unit 20, an inspection message indicating that the transport unit 20 has to be inspected by a service technician and/or a suspension message indicating the time in minutes how long the transport unit 20 may still be used before failure occurs. These messages are preferably outputted on the display of the computer unit 40, wherein further output means like loudspeakers, lights, etc. may be provided at the transport unit 20.

[0046] In order to provide the evaluation algorithm based on a temperature model of the thermally insulated transport unit 20, the following steps can be taken: [0047] Providing data with respect to the geometric dimensions of the transport unit 20, e.g. by using a CAD file; [0048] Describing material data such as heat conduction functions, material constants, insulation properties, heat capacity functions, battery data (phase transition enthalpy) or air data as a function of temperature/pressure via numerical fit functions or polynomials in the source code of the calculation program; [0049] Linking/combining equations to be solved, like energy equation, pulse equation, continuity equation, activate; [0050] Defining boundary conditions for the temperature in the environment and the transport unit 20, impress wind speeds or the solar power input location-dependently; and [0051] Calculating and observing the numerical convergence and stability according to the rule of numerics for computational fluid dynamics.

[0052] The heat transfer between the individual components of the transport unit 20 and their surroundings is calculated using the heat conduction equation. For this the densities, the heat conduction coefficients lambdaX and the heat capacities CpX of the materials are necessary.

[0053] For the air, the viscosity and the Prandtl number are also required. By means of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation the complete geometry and the environment can be calculated in detail in three dimensions and time. For this purpose, the flow and heat conduction equations as well as the energy equation are solved. The flow equations for the air represent the Navier-Stokes equations (impulse equations) and the continuity equation, which must be solved with the expert known solution approaches. In addition, the current state of the phase change material (PCM) as cooling capacity, e.g. cooling/cold packs, must be known with regard to temperature and state of charge. The state of charge describes the heat to be added to bring the phase change material from solid to liquid (enthalpy at phase transition). Or if the phase change material is already liquid, how is the heat capacity of the phase change material and therefore the heating can be calculated by the heat conduction and energy equation. Due to the initial temperatures, the simulation begins with the heat transfer between the components (or points). The heat transfer in the air is calculated by means of the Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation mentioned above or by means of a substitute model (at least one point per air volume). New temperatures (energy equation) result from the calculated heat flows. The heat loss of the phase change material, e.g. cooling pack, is taken into account by the state of charge. Depending on the state of charge, the temperature of the phase change material will change with a heat flow. Integration over time thus makes it possible to determine the overall time course of the temperature of the goods and that of the individual components of the transport unit 20.

[0054] In the shown preferred embodiment, the transport box 20 further comprises a communication interface 50, e.g. a short-range or a long-range communication interface, like a Bluetooth, WLAN, mobile communication interface for establishing a data communication with further devices. Thereby, issued evaluation messages and/or the temperature data may also be transferred to a separate computer unit, like a mobile computer device, e.g. a smartphone, a tablet, a notebook computer, a dashboard, etc.

[0055] The present invention has been described in conjunction with a preferred embodiment as examples as well. However, other variations can be understood and effected by those persons skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from the studies of the drawings, this disclosure and the claims.

[0056] In particular, the present invention is not limited to a specific location of the evaluation means, e.g. the evaluation means may be provided at the insulation unit 30 or at any other location. In the latter case, only respective communication interfaces have to be provided for a respective data exchange. In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation.

REFERENCE SIGNS

[0057] 10 system for evaluating the insulation properties of a thermally insulated transport

[0058] 20 thermally insulated transport unit

[0059] 30 temperature sensor/temperature logger

[0060] 40 computer unit

[0061] 50 communication interface