Amphibious Combat Vehicle Improved Heating Ventilation and Cooling (HVAC) System

The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems used in all of the Navy’s current Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) variants exhibit a number of undesirable traits including: insufficient cooling uniformity in the crew compartment, excessive noise levels inside and outside of the crew compartment, and cumbersome serviceability due to the refrigerant system disassembly.  Using both a high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver, and a fast-running system level analysis tool, Corvid will assess and redesign the HVAC systems used in all ACV variants.  By introducing a separated chilled water (hydronic) circuit to the low temperature side of the refrigeration system and splitting the air handlers into smaller parallel distributed units, issues regarding temperature distribution, noise levels, and serviceability will be reduced to favorable levels.  Fresh air circulation will also be quantified and maintained in the presence of the newly designed air movement in the crew compartment.  The packaging in the engine compartment will be modified to support the new components and facilitate ease of service by removing the need to depressurize the refrigerant lines.  In the option period, Corvid will construct a prototype air-handling system simulating the complete water-side portion of the air conditioning system.