Analyses of temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent construction standards on expeditionary US air bases

Temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent military assets are constructed for intended lifetimes to support personnel operating at bases around the world. The prolonged use and repurposing of assets leads to physical, social, and economic issues. These issues may be mitigated through risk-based asset management investments, including initially constructing assets with consideration of realistic intended operation durations or replacing and transitioning assets to support an enduring presence throughout each asset’s lifecycle. As bases become more developed, as population increases, or as missions change, upgraded construction standards may warranted. There is limited research regarding the factors that impact the decisions for the various constructions standards. This study seeks to understand how the US Air Force applies construction standards to assets at two overseas bases classified as transitioning from expeditionary to enduring; and the extent application aligns with policy. The sources of sample data were real property spreadsheets and sustainment management system facility reports. This research uses Chi-Square and ANOVA hypothesis testing to explore the relationships between construction standards by category, location, and individual base. Identifying differences between bases and between asset management planning and execution could help drive behavior changes and inform investment decisions. The test results indicate that Base A, where there is more overlapping of construction standard characteristics and more distinct asset prioritization, may be further in its transition to enduring than Base B, where construction standard characteristics overlap less and different facility categories on average share similar importance levels. Inconsistencies between variable relationships (e.g., building category and condition index are related for Base A but not for Base B) between the bases highlight differences in how each base prioritizes and maintains facilities and how long facilities are used. Evidence shows semi-permanent and temporary facilities are operated past their intended lives at both bases; in some instances for over twice as long as intended. However, less than 25% of facilities exceed their intended age by more than five years and of those, a majority have high building condition indexes. The test results for both bases mostly support the policy to primarily construct permanent structures and use temporary facilities as interim solutions.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

A SysML Framework for Modeling Contingency Basing

Contingency basing presents a planner with numerous design decisions driven by multiple design criteria such as the number of soldiers, base permanency, base location, and other factors. The operational environment of the base is not static either; design requirements change as the mission changes. In this work, we introduce a model-based systems engineering approach to elicit design and operational needs while dealing with the design complexity of constructing a contingency base. The model includes the key facility types that can make a contingency base, interactions between facility types, and required utilities for each facility type. The model elements are kept at an abstract level so the details can be altered as required by the customer needs. Pairing the model with an external analysis tool allows for quick development and testing. Properties of the facility types can be altered either in the model or the analysis tool, and reflected in both. Using the model- based systems engineering concepts of reusability, these elements can be saved and re-used in future base designs allowing for a rapid and adaptable design process. In addition, the sharing of information visually with Object Management Group\u27s Systems Modeling Language™ diagrams enhances the ability to collaborate with nonengineering subject matter experts within the design domain. By graphically showing the conditions and layout of the proposed contingency base, Department of Defense personnel not trained in modeling and simulation were able to interact with the engineering designs and identify gaps in the proposed architecture

Toward a Bio-Inspired System Architecting Framework: Simulation of the Integration of Autonomous Bus Fleets & Alternative Fuel Infrastructures in Closed Sociotechnical Environments

Cities are set to become highly interconnected and coordinated environments composed of emerging technologies meant to alleviate or resolve some of the daunting issues of the 21st century such as rapid urbanization, resource scarcity, and excessive population demand in urban centers. These cybernetically-enabled built environments are expected to solve these complex problems through the use of technologies that incorporate sensors and other data collection means to fuse and understand large sums of data/information generated from other technologies and its human population. Many of these technologies will be pivotal assets in supporting and managing capabilities in various city sectors ranging from energy to healthcare. However, among these sectors, a significant amount of attention within the recent decade has been in the transportation sector due to the flood of new technological growth and cultivation, which is currently seeing extensive research, development, and even implementation of emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles (AVs), the Internet of Things (IoT), alternative xxxvi fueling sources, clean propulsion technologies, cloud/edge computing, and many other technologies. Within the current body of knowledge, it is fairly well known how many of these emerging technologies will perform in isolation as stand-alone entities, but little is known about their performance when integrated into a transportation system with other emerging technologies and humans within the system organization. This merging of new age technologies and humans can make analyzing next generation transportation systems extremely complex to understand. Additionally, with new and alternative forms of technologies expected to come in the near-future, one can say that the quantity of technologies, especially in the smart city context, will consist of a continuously expanding array of technologies whose capabilities will increase with technological advancements, which can change the performance of a given system architecture. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand the system architecture implications of integrating different alternative fueling infrastructures with autonomous bus (AB) fleets in the transportation system within a closed sociotechnical environment. By being able to understand the system architecture implications of alternative fueling infrastructures and AB fleets, this could provide performance-based input into a more sophisticated approach or framework which is proposed as a future work of this research

A SysML Framework for Modeling Contingency Basing

Contingency basing presents a planner with numerous design decisions driven by multiple design criteria such as the number of soldiers, base permanency, base location, and other factors. The operational environment of the base is not static either; design requirements change as the mission changes. In this work, we introduce a model-based systems engineering approach to elicit design and operational needs while dealing with the design complexity of constructing a contingency base. The model includes the key facility types that can make a contingency base, interactions between facility types, and required utilities for each facility type. The model elements are kept at an abstract level so the details can be altered as required by the customer needs. Pairing the model with an external analysis tool allows for quick development and testing. Properties of the facility types can be altered either in the model or the analysis tool, and reflected in both. Using the model- based systems engineering concepts of reusability, these elements can be saved and re-used in future base designs allowing for a rapid and adaptable design process. In addition, the sharing of information visually with Object Management Group\u27s Systems Modeling Language™ diagrams enhances the ability to collaborate with nonengineering subject matter experts within the design domain. By graphically showing the conditions and layout of the proposed contingency base, Department of Defense personnel not trained in modeling and simulation were able to interact with the engineering designs and identify gaps in the proposed architecture