Refrigerating characteristics of ice storage capsule for temperature control of coal mine refuge chamber

• The effective refrigerating time for ice storage capsule is defined and tested.
• The mathematical relations of effective refrigerating time is derived and modified.
• The correction factor equation of ambient temperature and humidity is established.
• Three application parameters, tmodified, Ncapsule, and Nt,capsule are obtained.
• 24-h manned experiment verifies the accuracy of temperature control strategies.

Heat transfer process and refrigerating characteristics of ice melting enclosed in a cube capsule are investigated using experiments and mathematical relations to achieve temperature control by ice storage in coal mine refuge chamber. The effective refrigerating time for ice storage capsule is defined and tested. The mathematical relations of the effective refrigerating time and refrigeration rate are derived and modified. The correction factor equation of ambient temperature and humidity is established for the revision of mathematical relations. By using the modification factor equation, the mean relative error between modified and experimental values is less than 1%. The three application parameters, namely tmodified, Ncapsule, and Nt,capsule are obtained based on the experiments and the modified relations. These parameters form the temperature control strategies in using ice storage capsule for refuge chamber. A 24-h manned experiment verifies the accuracy of the temperature control strategies.