Statistical Validation of a Global Meteorological Database to Evaluate the Condensation Probability of Containers

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted on optimal ship routing to evaluate zero emissions for advancing marine transportation. At the same time, the persistent challenge of condensation within loaded containers remains unresolved. This study introduces a novel perspective by considering the minimization of condensation risk as a key factor in evaluating containerized transport conditions. To achieve this, we conducted onboard weather parameters measurements on a 20,000 TEU container ship to determine the spatiotemporal variations of air conditions and condensation probabilities during a voyage between Far East Asia and Europe. First, the accuracy of the measured results was compared with the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) for each season and sea region. Second, the condensation probabilities were compared for each voyage. Results revealed that the error in ERA5 increased in narrow channels, and solar radiation exhibited some differences in each season and sea region. ERA5 overestimated the condensation probability by 9—28% compared with the measured results owing to the error in solar radiation. Thus, solar radiation is the key factor affecting the condensation inside containers.