Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. Anthony G. Straatman

Abstract

Light Armored vehicles are required to operate in a variety of extremely hot and arid climates. As such, these vehicles are often subject to large heat gains due to environmental factors. The current systems employed for vehicle cooling do not always perform to the levels that are required, mainly due to the lack of a good estimate of the cooling load. A thermal analog circuit was created which separated each of the heat sources into its own module. Using material properties provided by General Dynamics Land Systems as well as information from acquired from CFD studies and ASHRAE, the values of the thermal resistances identified in the thermal circuit were determined. This information was used to create a model that is able to determine the amount of heat gained by the cabin of an LAV for a given set of operating conditions.

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