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Air-conditioning For A More Survivable Warship

Conference Paper · June 2017

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Air-conditioning For A More Survivable Warship

John Buckingham, CEng, FIMechE, MIMarEST a1

a.
Marine System Development Manager, Ships Naval Design Partnering (NDP). Email: [email protected]

Synopsis

The air conditioning system of a modern warship is increasingly becoming a truly essential system, i.e. key
mission systems depend on it for their heat management. When the current RN air-conditioning policy was
written as the Total Atmosphere Control System approach, key combat system equipment were also chilled
water cooled. Modern air-conditioning heat management methods now allow alternative design approaches to
be considered which better match the needs of a modern warship. The use of proven concepts such as reduced
wild heat to compartment air, direct-expansion chillers, increased fresh air but with reduced air supplies and
the introduction of chilled beams for comfort are explored in a warship context.
Keywords: Air conditioning, Heat management; survivability

1 Introduction
In modern ships, especially warships, the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system has a
considerable impact on the ship design in respect of the widespread distribution of the equipment, the power it
consumes and the dependence placed on it by the personnel onboard for comfort and the reliable operation of
vital equipment and systems. As a result of its significant scope, the design and installation costs of an HVAC
system are considerable and can form part of a critical path in the achievement of a complete ship design
definition.
The intense design work often stems from the logical placement of the system design in the whole ship design.
The HVAC system development follows the definition of the ship general arrangement and the electrical loads
(and their wild heat) and requires an involved sequence of design processes, namely the definition of: wild heat
loads, air flow quantities and flow-paths and chilled water quantities and flow-paths, chilled water plant sizing.
Although the HVAC designer can make initial estimates, these can become ever more difficult to alter as the
ship design progresses and they are vulnerable to sudden design changes due to other stakeholders.
Increasingly modern customers demand a greater proportion of Fresh Air (FA) in the primary supply air. This
recognises the increasing awareness of improved well-being and comfort due to reduced carbon dioxide levels
and the reduced carry-through of smells and vapours from other compartments. This trend is likely to continue
as good quality, primary air is also better for sustained concentration at work and for general contentment.
Previously the FA make-up would have been at 10-20% of the fan air volume but where FA demand is higher it
could be above 50% for auxiliary ships and some customers have stated 100% for certain sections of the vessel.
Such FA flow increases lead to a much higher Chilled Water (CW) cooling load, humidification and heating
challenges.
However, there are also trends towards smaller mission system electronic cabinets which have a lower
individual wild heat load than the older ones they replaced. Those older cabinets were usually cooled with
chilled water with an assumed 10% loss of wild heat to the space. The new cabinets lose all their wild heat to
the air but their wild heat is usually more than 10% of the older cabinets with the result that wild heat loads
increase. On top of this is the inevitable fact that more equipment is inserted into the space freed up and so there
is yet more wild heat per unit volume.

Author’s Biography

John Buckingham is the Marine Systems Development Manager at the MoD-led Naval Design Partnering Team. John is
seconded from BMT Defence Services Limited where he is the Chief Mechanical Engineer.
A higher demand for FA and comfort together with higher wild heat to the space, cause air volume and heat
management challenges and new ships are to be designed to ensure they are fit for the mission system fits they
will receive through life,

In the UK industrial defence enterprise, there have been a number of warship HVAC studies in the past five
years, both by the NDP and by a number of companies. The studies are prompted by a combination of:

 Role changes to major warships and their operating arrangements.

 The increased demand of HVAC systems for size, weight and power.
 Changes in cooling policy for combat system equipment.
 Challenging requirements being set at the design stage.
 Issues with how margins are applied and utilised through life.
Above these technical issues are the broad comfort-related issues whereby the RN needs to attract and retain
people with good information technology skills. Such people will expect acceptable habitability with a
comfortable and healthy environment as one element of this.
2 Scope
This study is sponsored by the MOD Design Equipment and Support Directorate’s DES-TECH Technology
Office. The study has reviewed the current HVAC best practice in:

 The naval vessels of our NATO partners

 Commercial shipping
 Domestic and industrial land-based designs.
The study has sought to identify the potential future developments to allow current HVAC systems designs to be
informed with the latest technological advances. This study has therefore investigated, analysed and discussed
current and emerging technologies to support future HVAC control and efficiency in RN ships.
The relevant parts of associated military and commercial standards have been reviewed to help identify the best
objective set of comfort conditions for a future MoD naval HVAC design policy.

3 Current Ship Design

3.1 As It Stands
The current open-ship design approach is based on the worst of both worlds. The cooling arrangements are
based on full air-conditioning to meet the tropical compartment heat loads which in mission-related
compartments are from equipment which increasingly is not chilled water (CW) cooled. This leads to large air
flows with the attendant impact that large ducting has on the ship’s GA. Fan sizes are also affected leading to
larger ATU compartments. The same air flow is then provided in winter conditions and is to be heated to
provide the appropriate conditions for human comfort.

3.2 Fresh Air

In general, there is ~10% FA make-up to replace the air discharged to atmosphere (DTA) from heads and
galleys. The total air volume is also to be adequate to ensure carbon dioxide levels are below the maximum
value as prescribed by the local human activities. There is little or no energy recovery either for cool air leaving
in warm climates or for hot air leaving in cold climates.

3.3 Cold Climates

The same air distribution flow volume arrangement is then sustained in cold climates when the air leaves the Air
Handling Unit (AHU) located in the room known as Air Treatment Unit (ATU) at temperatures up to 17°C with
additional in-duct heaters used to raise the air to a maximum of 32°C as required to achieve a compartment
temperature of 22°C or more.
3.4 Perspective
The current design approach is significantly driven by cooling requirements. This leads to significant air supply
volumes and their associated ducting to occupied compartments, large ATUs and a significant electrical heating
load in winter.
Ideally the occupied compartments should be designed to a tighter temperature-Relative Humidity (RH)
envelope for all climates if operator efficiency is to be sustained and perhaps more importantly, there should be
a technical distinction between the FA required for occupier habitability and the means by which the required
compartment temperature is sustained.
4 Current UK Experience
The operating issues due to high compartment temperatures have been studied by the NDP on a number of
different occasions over the past five years. The issues related mostly to the operational spaces due to the
introduction of new equipment which had little or no CW cooling. Although such issues have now been largely
addressed, this has been partly due to the reduced energy consumption of mission equipment in recent years.
The Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) HVAC ventilation system forms roughly one quarter the signal footprint of
IPMS and with 430 Human Computer Interaction (HCI) pages which is half the total, Egan, Ref 1 . It is vital
that future systems are simplified for rapid reconfiguration and ease of upkeep and control.
However the availability and the use of new technology has changed the land-based HVAC design base a great
deal and these changes need to be considered, especially as the impact of size, weight and power consumption
of HVAC systems continues to increase. In general, the air distribution trunking has a significant impact on the
outfit of the ship and the ability of the designer to integrate this with all other platform systems. It leads to costly
features to accommodate tight spaces and makes upkeep and husbandry a challenge.
5 Current NATO Practice
Several European navies and their suppliers to have been approached for their insight into the future of
shipboard HVAC systems. The US and Royal Netherlands navies are understood to have a similar design basis
to the UK.

It is understood that the French navy use Tepid Water (TW) systems as these avoid the risk of condensation on
exposed pipework and in northern European waters, may allow direct sea water cooling thus reducing the
loading of the Chilled Water Plant (CWP).

NATO standards apply guidance for comfort conditions. ANEP 24, Ref 2 provides guidelines for shipboard
habitability requirements for combatant surface ships. It provides general reasons why the accommodation and
operating spaces need to be fit for purpose so that ships staff can operate effectively after a fulsome rest. The
prescribed guidance is qualitative and little specific data can be taken from it.
6 New Approach

6.1 Reduce Air Flows

Ideally a new design policy will lead to a tighter operating compartment temperature–humidity envelope and an
air distribution system which is better measured to the needs of each compartment together with a smaller
overall size, weight and power demand. The proposed design is to increase the combined use of compartment
chillers and air cooling to reduce air flows and the overall CW load.
Although the use of a minimum compartment air-change rate as a design metric is useful for achieving general
ventilation volumes, it is not a sufficiently accurate means for designing the air-conditioning on a warship where
a solution is to be found which meets a set of design conditions. For this reason, it is proposed that air supplies
are based on minimum FA requirements and the need to manage the humidity in-hand with the compartment
chiller removing sensible heat directly at source.
6.2 Fresh Air Demand
Bridger, Ref 3, and Melly, Ref 4, address the issue of habitability and how it affects the recruitment and
retention of the kind of talented people we wish to have serving in our ships. They mention the need for good air
quality without making specific reference to extremes of temperature.
Typical FA allocations per person for either land or marine applications are usually 8 to 10 l/s, although Def-
Stan 02-102 (NES 102), Ref 5, specified 5 l/s. The UK government approved document Part F, Ref 6, stipulates
a general (whole building) minimum ventilation rate of 10 l/s per person for offices.

Figure 1. Fresh Air per Person for a range of Breathing Air and CO2 Limits

Figure 1 shows how the FA flow per person increases as the person’s own breathing air increases due to
increasing activity. This plot is based on physiological relationship shown below

(1)

Where
 BAV=breathing air volume
 n=number of persons (1 in this case)
 a= CO2 generated during breathing, i.e. 4%
 b1=CO2 content of fresh air (now 400ppm or 0.04%)
 b2=permitted concentration of CO2 in fully manned compartment (y-axis)
The figure shows how 5 l/s per person is acceptable for all specified working situations. With the recognition
that low CO2 contamination is better for concentration, it is proposed that a rate of 8 l/s as this leads to a CO2
concentration of about 1,000 ppm with sedentary people. It is also consistent with the FA requirements of BS
EN ISO 7547:2004, Ref 7 .
7 Heat Removal

7.1 Options
Those compartments which have a significant wild heat load (i.e. one that sets the air flow rather than the FA
requirement) will require measures such as the following to reduce the wild heat transmitted to the compartment
air:

 Improved use of bulkhead and deckhead thermal insulation to reduce solar gain.
 Removal of heat to exhaust vent ducting at heat source.
 Locate and self-contain heat sources in CW-cooled cabinets.
 Employ local Fan Cooler Units (FCU) to remove sensible wild heat.
 Increased use of CW/TW direct cooling of mission system cabinets.
 Air flow volumes are derived form that to meet FA demand requirements.
The Sensible Heat Ratio (SHR) is a measure used to indicate the degree to which the latent heat in the form of
moisture added to the air in the compartment affects the resultant compartment air conditions. It is derived from
the equation: sensible heat/(sensible heat + latent heat). Therefore a value if 1.0 is achieved with a room with no
latent heat: i.e. no people are present and there are no kettles etc.

Such measures should bring the sensible heat ratio (SHR) closer to a typical design value between 0.88 and
0.90. In this range there are more solutions that can be borrowed from land-based HVAC designs. The most
promising compartment cooling solutions are:

 Active chilled beams (ACB),

 CW-cooled deckhead cassette coolers,
 Conventional bulkhead-mounted naval.

7.2 Active chilled beams (ACB)

ACB employ an overhead air supply trunking which includes a TW cooler. The primary air supply is sized for
the fresh air replenishment demand due to the design occupancy. The primary air is introduced through a nozzle
which employs the venturi effect to draw up to five times the primary air from the compartment though the TW
cooler. Typical beams are rated up to 25 l/s per metre primary air flow with a cooling effect of up to 1000 W/m.
Where the wild heat load cannot be met by such an arrangement there is scope to exceed these values but the
wild heat reduction measures stated above are preferred. .Studies on a range of compartments with different
occupancy and wild heat have shown that there is seldom sufficient space to fit ACB.
The increased use of ACB has the benefit that air to the compartment is sized for the FA demand only with most
of the wild sensible heat removal achieved with the TW. The figure below shows that using this approach, the
air supply is reduced by over 30% for a wide range of wild heat and occupancy conditions.
Such reductions lead to smaller supply and exhaust ducting and smaller ATU. The air into the ship is likely to
remain sensibly the same. The penalty for such benefits is the introduction of a TW system typically operating
in the temperature range 16°C to 19°C. The lowest supply temperature is chosen to be slightly above the
compartment dew point.
There are numerous suppliers of this technology which has been in use for over twenty years and which
originated in Norway.
Figure 2. Active chilled beam

Figure 2 shows the modified air flow demand in percentage terms for a range of compartment wild heat and
occupancy values. The red slope shows the upper limit for ACB operations which is equivalent to an SHR range
of up to 0.8.

TW is used in other navies as a condensation free cooling medium. TW systems are used in place of coolers
such as CW cassette (CWC) chillers to avoid the need for condensate lines as the cooled air does not fall to its
dew point. TW systems can be cooled by SW directly in cold and temperate climates and thus by-pass the CW
Plant (CWP) saving pumping power.

7.3 CWC deckhead coolers

These are derived from standard commercial land units with special attention to the risk of corrosion due to air
with traces of salt. The units comprise CW supply and return pipework together with a condensate line. As they
are overhead in compartments which may have operations equipment, some units will have to be fully shock-
proofed whilst other will have to be simply restrained withy local isolation valves.

By removing heat from the hottest air at top of the compartment, the thermal gradient is higher and the units can
be compact with a cooling capacity of at least 3.0kW/m2.

7.4 Conventional Bulkhead-mounted Naval Cassette Units

These units are increasingly used to supplement air flow cooling and as they can be turned on and off, they offer
a flexibility not provided by the air-based cooling. They are used to good effect in new RN builds and are used
ad hoc to address in-service over-heating issues due to new mission system fits in older ships. However they
consume valuable bulkhead area and they do not cool the air at its hottest position which is overhead.
7.5 Variable Air Volume
A Variable Air Volume (VAV) system employs controls and dampers to regulate air flows to lead to greater
comfort. One of the main benefits of VAV systems is their ability to provide the flexibility required to direct the
airflow between zones with variable loading (e.g. movement of people and changes of wild heat), Abbas, Ref 8.
However unless variable-speed fans are used, they may increase fan power consumption due to damper
throttling. The need for sensors, controls and other automation has a significant impact on ship outfit and on the
IPMS. This leads to a design solution which takes longer to complete and with a more costly installation and
equipment fit.
8 Possible System Solution
A possible design could comprise a full FA system where each compartment receives at least the fresh air flow
(8 l/s person) relating to its maximum occupancy and humidity requirements. The balance of cooling is
provided by compartment chillers using CW or TW. The wild heat to the compartment is limited to 1kW per
person. This system has no recirculation as the FA is DTA so that CO2 and other contaminants are not
recirculated. This means there is no need for separate ATU’s within one zone as all FA for each zone is
cooled/heated at the Air Filtration Unit (AFU) position. The air DTA is used to cool/heat the incoming air.
9 Outcomes

9.1 CW Heat Loads

The current set of design standards for a compartment with 10kW of wild heat and an occupancy of five people
leads to a psychrometric chart as shown in Figure 3. An effective design temperature of 23.5°C is used but this
could be changed as required.

Figure 3. Psychrometric chart of air flow conditions for a 10kW wild heat compartment

The ATU chilled water load for this compartment is 17.11kW due to the large amount of heat to be removed
from the external air. If the wild heat is reduced to 2kW due to alternative means of removing 8kW of wild heat
to the CW, then the same ATU CW load is modified to 11.69kW, plus the 8kW to CW my other means makes a
similar 19kW thermal load, but with a much reduced air flow from 607 to 400l/s.
Figure 4. Psychrometric chart of air flow conditions for a 2kW wild heat compartment & 90% recirculation

Figure 4 is with 90% recirculation of compartment air, 10% FA make-up and 2kW of wild heat and 5 person
occupancy. If there is zero recirculation, the total air over the ATU coil is from ambient. Figure 5 shows the
resultant psychrometric chart with an ATU cooling load of 18.17kW, plus 8kW FCU load to give a total CW
load of 26.17kW.

Figure 5. Psychrometric chart of air flow conditions for a 2kW wild heat compartment & zero recirculation

A room of five-person occupancy was studied to identify the impact of the variation of:

a. The wild heat to the room with 5 people present and

b. the fraction of air recirculated to the ATU.
As the wild heat to the room was reduced, the balance was added to the FCU CW load so that the total of 10kW
of wild heat from people, equipment and or boundary heat remained.

Figure 6. Variation of CW load with wild heat to room and recirculation fraction

To achieve lower overall chilled water loads due to HVAC, Figure 6 shows that there is merit in reducing room
wild heat down to about 1kW per person (excluding the sensible wild heat due to people). A recirculation
fraction of 0.5 and above is also good for reducing the CW load.
Figure 7. Variation of compartment air supply with wild heat & recirculation fraction

Figure 7 also shows that wild heat is best limited to 1kW person plus the greatest scope for reducing air is with a
recirculation fraction between 0.6 and 0.9. As BE EN ISO 7547:2004 advocates a minimum of 40% fresh air to
spaces (or 60% recirculation or less), this standard together with the good practice of minimising wild heat to
the compartment with 1kW maximum per person is proposed as a working design guide to reduce the
distributed air flows and their trunking sizes and to reduce chilled water loads.
Figure 8. Composite of Relevant HVAC Parameters

The blue chain line boundary in Figure 8 shows the design envelope that offers a fresh air ratio better than 40%
(i.e. recirculation is lower than 60%), FA per person is between 10l/s and 35l/s with a lower chilled water load.
Thus if the sensible wild heat to air in the compartment is reduced so that the SHR is between 0.70 and 0.85
with a FA make-up of 40% or better, a good balance of design may be achieved. This kind of design point suits
ACB.

9.2 Survivability
The current design basis of full air flow cooling for equipment and people can quickly lead to compartment
overheating if the recirculation fans are crash stopped due to fire: either fire drills or the real event. Figure 9
shows the time to reach a temperature limit for a range of wild heat and compartment sizes. If a room of volume
100m3 has a wild heat source of 10kW, it will take about ~5 minutes for the room temperature to increase from
27°C to 55°C.

Figure 9. Time to reach a temperature limit for a range of wild heat and compartment sizes
If equipment heat can be removed from the compartment direct to CW, it will provide a more survivable design
as there will be a longer time before the room becomes heat affected. This can be affected by compact direct-
expansion (DX) chillers where the compartment air is cooled by refrigerant and the heat is passed either to a
local sea or fresh water circuit. Such units are usually 20 litres/kW by volume and 10kg/kW by weight.

Clearly with reduced air flows to compartments, there is a greater challenge to ensure adequate air distribution.
Individual compartments may need more attention at the design stage with the potential use of active chilled
beams and cassette coolers.

10 Summary
This paper has explored the issues with the current air-conditioning systems on UK and other NATO warships.
They stem from a fixed air flow volume based on the total wild heat to each compartment. Increasingly modern
mission system equipment relies on ambient air for its cooling and thus the air-conditioning system is becoming
a critical system for the ship’s main function. Additionally the current approach is outdated and new
technologies allow for a more compact approach which offers a more reliable and survivable performance in
damage control situations. This would also be applicable for fire drills when the air-conditioning system is
crash-stopped.

It proposes that future UK naval HVAC systems have:

 Compartment air supplies based on design for occupancy, i.e. fresh air demands and humidity.
 Excess cooling above the air cooling requirement is provided by FCU or similar.
 Direct exhaust trunking is located next to equipment with significant wild heat.
 Key equipment is located inside cabinets which has direct –expansion cooling to local CW or SW
mains.
 For cabins and other compartments of high occupancy with a regular arrangement, TW-based cooling
with active chilled beams, cassette coolers or spot coolers.
 TW systems to be cooled by CW or SW.
 Thermal recovery using a self-contained water system between the inlet air and air DTA.
11 Acknowledgements
The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not represent those of the United
Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MoD). The co-operation of the UK MoD is acknowledged with thanks.
The kind permission and resources granted to the author by the NDP are acknowledged with thanks. All
findings, ideas, opinions and errors herein are those of the author and are not necessarily those of anyone else.
Frenger and Halton Marine have co-operated with the ACB elements of study and their co-operation is
appreciated.
12 References

1 Egan, M J. “Designing for ‘big data’ and change resilience as part of QEC IPMS and HVAC
integration”. INEC 2016.
2 ANEP 24 “Guidelines for shipboard habitability requirements for combatant surface ships”. October
1993.
3 Bridger, R, S “Habitability in ships – overview and a look at some trends”. INM. JNE 2000
4 Commodore Melly. “The Fleet View of habitability in warships” JNE 2000
5 MOD Defence-Standard 02-102 Pt1 Iss 3, Aug 2005, Requirements for Air-Conditioning and
Ventilation
6 UK government Approved Document F: Ventilation, NBS, 2010.
 7 BS EN ISO 7547:2004. Air-conditioning and ventilation of accommodation spaces – Design conditions
and basis of calculations.
8 Abbas, Y. “Energy recovery and control methods for HVAC systems in naval ships”. INEC 2016

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