TABLE OF CONTENTS Refrigerated spaces might be needed for environment chambers to test products, to cold-treat metals, and for a variety of other special assignments. The refrigerated enclosures on which this chapter concentrates, however, are the spaces in which meat, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and other foods are cooled, maintained at a controlled temperature, and/or frozen. The design of refrigerated warehouses, spaces for cooling, and freezers incorporates such disciplines as structural design, materials-handling concepts, and thermal behavior. Because of the close connection of industrial refrigeration to the food industry, changes in food marketing and distribution impact quickly the design of refrigerated facilities. While this chapter emphasizes the thermal characteristics of refrigerated spaces, certain structural considerations must also be considered because of their interplay with the thermal requirements. Topics of special importance include types and characteristics of insulations, vapor barriers, underfloor heating, typical construction cross-sections of walls, roofs, and floors, and the junctions of walls with roofs and floors.
Even though some refrigerated storage warehouses and distribution centers are built without careful studies of effective solutions to the intended functions of the building, skillful analyses can usually result in a more efficient and profitable project. The owner should be pressed for data on the requirements of the building, and the designer should then translate these requirements into floor area and dimensions, building height, number and size of doors, and whether the product is stacked from the floor by fork-lift trucks or a high-rise automated stacker...
