Dynamic assessment of thermal management strategies aboard naval surface ships

Quantifying the close relationship between shipboard thermal, mechanical, and electrical sub-systems is of fundamental importance to understanding the nature of a large, integrated system like the all-electric ship (AES). Our research efforts in support of development of an AES are focused on physics-based, dynamic models of components and subsystems that approximate, at the system-level, the notional architecture of an AES. This research has resulted in the development of a general purpose thermal management tool coded in C++ and known as the Dynamic Thermal Modeling and Simulation (DTMS) framework. The DTMS simulation environment provides the ability to model thermal systems and subsystems relevant to the AES. The summary presented here describes the modeling approach used in DTMS and provides several examples of its use in large, complex, system-level, · dynamic simulations. The examples emphasized here include a: dynamic model for variable and constant air volume heating, ventilation, and air conditioning that permits investigation of alternatives to conventional constant air flow systems and the power savings associated with variable air flow systems. · Co-simulation that dynamically links a thermally dependent electrical power distribution network, and its consequent transient heat loads, with a thermal resistive heat flow network that connects these loads to the thermal management network at the system-level.