Wherever Soldiers go, shelters must go, too. These shelter systems mustn’t ever only protect and supply comfort; they ought to even be as energy efficient as possible. Each time a base camp needs fuel delivered, that camp and its warfighters are exposed to vulnerabilities.
That’s why a bunch of shelters were sent to the Southwest Asia Area of Responsibility to be tested by both the military and Air Force recently as element of the “Advanced, Energy-Efficient Shelter Systems for Contingency Basing and Other Applications” program.
“It’s not until you really put it in an operational environment where you may really have a very good assessment of what’s going to work and what won’t work for the military,” said Amy Klopotoski, contingency basing science and technology lead on the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center.
Most of the shelters being tested are 20 feet wide by 32 feet long, and are equipped with various energy-saving technologies that must adapt to the environments warfighters face: median temperatures starting from minus 25 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in all kinds of weather.
Tent fabrics need to be durable, mildew resistant, flame resistant, and able to blackout, that’s why “you have multiple layers with multiple different functions in these textiles,” said Klopotoski.
Klopotoski explained that advanced materials similar to additional reflective layers, “basically aluminized film,” were added onto pre-existing shelter fabrics. Low-emissivity coatings are another product being tested, specifically for sturdiness. This coating can even reflect the sun’s energy faraway from the shelter.
All tents were outfitted with more advanced thermal insulation, also developed by NSRDEC, designed to minimize the ability required to heat and funky the shelters without increasing weight and bulk. Every tent also had integrated solar shades that reduce solar load and the build-up of warmth in the tents, without increasing the shelter’s footprint.
“The NSRDEC provided many technologies used in the tests,” said Klopotoski. “The reduction in energy demand can be achieved through a mix of technologies.”
The joint Army/Air Force team hopes to minimize that demand by at the least 50 percent by using solar shades, photovoltaics, advanced materials and coatings.
Besides energy reduction, there’ll even be less weight and further equipment warfighters would have to support sustainable living.
“Currently, we field each 640-foot-square shelter with one five-ton (Portable Environmental Control Unit), where with these shelters, we’ve two 640-foot-square shelters being cooled with one five-ton ECU,” said Klopotoski.
This reduction eliminates 2,200 pounds and four,160-square-feet of apparatus, in addition to reducing as much as 40 kilowatts of energy consumption on a 150-man camp.
One shelter is even outfitted with photovoltaic modules, balance of systems electronics to make the facility generated usable, and battery backup for storage and future use that was developed through NSRDEC projects.
“The photovoltaics generate power for lights and subsidiary equipment, which reduces the desire for diesel-fueled generators,” said Klopotoski.
Reducing the desire for diesel fuel cuts down on energy consumption, cost and the desire for refueling, as a way to mean fewer Soldiers transporting fuel at the roads.
Previous similar tests could only be run if NSRDEC personnel physically came to the positioning every 30 days to download data; now that data is usually accessed remotely in real time.
“The data collection equipment measures the temperatures in any respect of different layers of the shelters, including outside of the solar shade, in-between the solar shade and tent, the tent surface, and internal temperatures, in addition to airflow contained in the tent,” said Klopotoski. “We also are measuring the fuel being consumed and the ability usage of all the equipment.”
This intensive testing could be completed in November. Following this testing can be tests at a chilly-weather location to assemble the identical kind of data in a minus 25 degree Fahrenheit environment.
The result of this knowledge collection will assist both the military and Air Force as they seek to present warfighters with the proper technological advances possible.
NSRDEC is a part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America’s Soldiers.
RDECOM is an incredible subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army’s premier provider of materiel readiness — technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, and sustainment — to the complete force, around the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.
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