The Internal Climate of an Emergency Tent

The Internal Climate of an Emergency Tent

Tents play an important role in emergency situations where people are facing life-threatening conditions. They are portable, easily deployable, and provide a sense of security to those who need it most. Tents are a staple for global aid organizations like the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders as well as local governments during wildfire evacuations or flood displacement events. They are also used by hunters, survivalists, and car campers who want to keep a tent stashed nearby in case they are faced with an unexpected night outdoors.

A tent’s internal climate plays a major role in its performance and comfort, especially when it is used for prolonged periods of time. This is because the internal temperature of a tent depends on both the outdoor meteorological conditions and the set point of its air conditioning. As such, the internal climate of an emergency tent must be designed to meet the demands of its users.

This study evaluates the thermal environment inside an emergency tent under air-conditioned conditions using experimental measurements. The PMV and PPD of the experiment are calculated using Fanger’s PMV-PPD model. The PMV index reflects the overall thermal sensation of occupants, while the PPD index takes into account individual differences in their thermal sensitivities.

Compared to conventional buildings, emergency tents are lightweight structures with limited thermal storage capability and poor insulation performance. As a result, the indoor temperature under air-conditioning in emergency tents tends to be highly correlated with outdoor meteorological conditions, and thus, a high set point of the air-conditioning system is required to achieve a thermally comfortable environment.

The experimental data reveal that a cooling supply of 4 kW is insufficient to maintain an acceptable indoor temperature and satisfy the comfort needs of occupants in emergency tents under air-conditioned conditions. Increasing the cooling supply to 5 kW improves the thermal comfort condition of the tent, but it does not reach satisfactory levels.

To address the limitation of this study, future research should focus on investigating the influence of various factors on the indoor climate of emergency tents, such as inner heat sources and the outer wind speed and direction. Furthermore, the impact of occupants’ clothing and metabolic rate should be considered as well.

The hospital’s emergency department (ED) was temporarily moved to the tents in order to cope with a sudden increase of patient volume during a pandemic. The flow of patients through the tents was established as follows: Patients were screened at a dedicated hand washing station located in tent A and then entered tent B for registration. They were then triaged by an ED RN, and if they did not require COVID-19 testing, they were queued in tent C for a medical screening exam. Afterwards, they would receive discharge teaching and any needed prescriptions in tent D. This process was repeated for each of the three tents.