Cooling performance of encapsulated ice plates used for the underground refuge chamber

The indoor temperature of the underground refuge chamber will rise once there is no power supplying for the traditional cooling system. To ensure the indoor temperature meets the requirements of the residences of people and equipment normally operating, this paper proposes a non-electric cooling scheme that places the encapsulated ice plates (EIPs) directly in the chamber to control the indoor temperature. Through verified simulation and experiment in a laboratory, this scheme is determined feasible. Through simulations and orthogonal experiments, the influences on the cooling performance of EIPs discharging in the chamber have been analyzed; meanwhile, the optimal size of the EIPs is determined. Furthermore, based on the principle that the scheme can be performed by non-professionals with simple manipulation and maintain indoor temperature below 35 °C continuously over 72 h, the quantity, combination, locations and replacing frequency of the EIPs are determined under the condition of this laboratory. Finally, the result of the experiments, with each 14.3 W indoor average hourly cooling load requiring one EIP, is used in a different underground refuge chamber with a different cooling load and discrete heat sources. The simulation result shows that the matching relationship between heat sources and EIPs can be popularized.