Modeling ship air conditioning maintenance costs using the Integrated Condition Assessment System (ICAS)

• Main Author: Blyden, Gregory D.
• Other Authors: Haga, William
• Published: Monterey, Calif. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/4281

The United States Navy operates in seas such as the Arabian Gulf, where water temperatures can exceed 90 degrees and air temperatures surpass 95 degrees. An intuitive link exists between these higher operating temperatures and an increased demand on shipboard Air Conditioning (A/C) plants. Increased plant usage, in turn, causes higher A/C plant maintenance costs. To build an accurate cost model for shipboard Air Conditioning plants, this thesis examines the relationship between seawater temperature, A/C plant run-hours, and A/C plant maintenance costs. Data generated by the Integrated Condition Assessment System (ICAS) were used to test a correlation between these factors for TICONDEROGA, ARLEIGH BURKE, and OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class ships. The results indicate that although seawater temperature is a statistically significant factor in determining A/C plant use, plant use is not a statistically significant driver of maintenance costs. Although the findings discourage further research into this area, the methodology developed for using ICAS data may be applied to other shipboard systems.