Programmatic Modeling of Shelters Used in the Forward Operating Bases

Abstract

The rising cost of sending military troops overseas has been a significant issue for the Department of Defense (DOD). Mission supplies such as liquid fuel, battery, diesel generator, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, and other equipment need to be transported from the source location to the destined operating base. To reduce energy consumption and unnecessary transfer of supplies, it is important to develop a programmatic modeling framework to predict energy consumption of an operating base depending on the mission needs and the local environment conditions. The research develops a modeling framework which will allow energy consumption estimation of shelters in a programmatic way for a large set of parameters using simulation tools OpenStudio and EnergyPlus and high level programming language Ruby. The programmatic framework considers different variables such as shelter types, construction components, number of personnel, electric equipment loads, the HVAC systems, the duration of operation, schedules, and the location of operation. The thesis developed measures to perform parametric analysis and sensitivity analysis of shelters. The analysis can be further used for the optimization of the energy consumption of an operating base. A better estimation of supplies needed in a mission can be provided from the simulation database to reduce unnecessary transportation and energy usage.