Recycling COR-TEN ® Sea Containers into Service Modules for Military Applications: Thermal Analysis

Carlos Ulloa, María Elena Arce, Guillermo Rey, José Luis Míguez and José Hernández
Additional contact information
Carlos Ulloa: Defense University Center, Escuela Naval Militar, 36920 Marín, Spain
María Elena Arce: Defense University Center, Escuela Naval Militar, 36920 Marín, Spain
Guillermo Rey: Defense University Center, Escuela Naval Militar, 36920 Marín, Spain
José Luis Míguez: Industrial Engineering School, Campus Lagoas Marcosende, University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
José Hernández: Armada Española, Escuela Naval Militar, 36920 Marín, Spain

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: It is thought that there are 14 million standardised sea containers out of order, equal to 23.3 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), which could be devoted for other purposes. The COR-TEN ® steel containers are the best, due to the features of the materials, to be used in applications intended for the accommodation of people. One of the uses is framed in the area of humanitarian help, as service modules in areas of social emergency. Moreover, the deployment of these kinds of modules is quite simple, as the Army is generally able to transport containers in its units. In this project we have selected three typologies of service modules and we have designed modules based on sea containers which can fit into these typologies. The container chosen to be recycled is the 1 TEU, to which the closings and divisions are defined, which must reflect the different typologies of the service modules chosen. Afterwards, a study of thermal charges is carried out on three different settings of service modules located in five locations spread in different climate areas. Throughout a thermal simulation in Trnsys ® (V17, Thermal Energy System Specialists, LLC, Madison, WI, USA), the consumption and maximum demand of heat and cold are analysed. Based on these results, the best equipment to cover the energy demand of the modules analysed in this study could be chosen. Moreover, the results can be used to estimate the operational costs of the deployment of the modules.

Keywords: shipping containers; recycling steel; thermal simulation; Trnsys; energy demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/6/820/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/6/820/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:6:p:820-:d:101784

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().