Software Based Model Development for Design of Area Specific Shelter for Thermal Comfort Maintenance.
“We need to build a user-friendly software tool that simulates and designs energy-efficient shelters for extreme climates like Ladakh. The tool takes local weather and material properties as inputs and predicts the best shape, size, and building materials to keep the inside warm without using fossil fuels.”
Deconstructed Problem Blueprint
WHAT TO BUILD?
A web-based simulation and decision-support software platform that models thermal dynamics, solar radiation capture, and heat loss for modular area-specific shelters.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Primary beneficiaries are defense personnel deployed in high-altitude cold regions like Ladakh. Users include DRDO researchers, military engineers, and base camp planners.
WHY DOES IT EXIST?
Current shelters are poorly designed for local climates, leading to rapid heat loss after sunset and heavy reliance on fossil fuels and external heaters for survival.
INPUT → PROCESS → OUTPUT ARCHITECTURE PIPELINE
User-defined location parameters (latitude, altitude), ambient weather data (temperature, solar irradiance, wind speed), shelter dimensions (shape, size, orientation), and material properties (thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, thickness, phase-change/thermal mass materials).
Thermodynamic and heat-transfer calculations (conduction, convection, radiation), solar path and radiation modeling, transient thermal simulation, and multi-objective optimization algorithms to evaluate material combinations.
Interactive dashboard showing predicted internal shelter temperature curves over 24 hours, solar energy gain graphs, heat flow and loss metrics, and a ranked list of optimal design and material configurations.
CONSTRAINTS
- Must work reliably in offline or low-bandwidth environments (edge deployments at field bases).
- Calculations must be near real-time (<5 seconds for standard simulations) to enable rapid iterative design.
- Must accurately handle multi-material composite layers and phase-change thermal storage materials.
JURY METRICS
- Simulation accuracy compared against standard engineering software (like ANSYS/EnergyPlus thermal benchmarks).
- UI/UX simplicity for non-technical military engineers.
- Comprehensiveness of the materials database and optimization recommendations.
CORE BOTTLENECK
Translating complex transient 3D finite element heat transfer equations into a lightweight, fast web app without relying entirely on heavy commercial solver licenses like ANSYS during the hackathon.
Why You Should Choose This PS (Pros)
- High strategic defense value with direct application for troops in extreme cold regions.
- Clear, quantifiable problem statement with well-defined input and output requirements.
- Strong potential for scaling beyond Ladakh to deserts, jungles, and high-altitude disaster zones.
Challenges & Risks to Watch (Cons)
- Requires domain knowledge in thermodynamics and heat transfer mechanics.
- Validating simulation accuracy against real-world physics within a 36-hour window can be challenging.
- May invite direct comparison with heavy enterprise simulation tools like ANSYS or OpenStudio.
Recommended Tech Stack & Grand Finale Features
Killer Features to Impress the SIH Jury
View Official SIH 2026 Portal Raw Text▼
•
The ambient atmospheric condition affects the temperature inside the shelter and makes thermal management necessary for maintenance of temperature in the comfortable range. The existing shelters for any region are generally not designed as per the requirements of a particular region and hence not energy efficient thus demands external thermal comfort maintenance system. Area specific designed shelters looks smart and one time solution for thermal management as per the atmospheric condition of the region.
This model development project work is specifically conceptualised keeping in mind the tough climatic condition of High Altitude cold Region like Ladakh and can be used for studying the design requirements of other climatic region shelters as well.
•
The Ladakh region is blessed with high solar energy irradiance (1900-2100 kwh/m2/year) along with long average sunshine duration of 7.9 hours with 300 plus average annual cloud free days. The temperatures inside the shelters found suitable during day hours even during the winter period due to trapping of thermal energy from solar radiation, but approach nearly the ambient atmospheric temperature after sunset. High thermal losses through the material of the shelter and openings contributed towards such low temperature inside shelters.
A detailed thermal analysis of the shelter including size, shape orientation etc.
along with, study related to application of suitable materials and application of thermal mass storage material, composite multi-material etc. and effect of openings on outcome looks to be a potential solution for development of self-sufficient passive shelter for the region in terms of temperature maintenance.
A general model development in ANSYS software to thermally simulate the shelter for study of heat losses and capture of real time atmospheric ambient climatic condition data will prove to be helpful. The project is conceptualised for the development of general model in ANSYS software. The model should be user friendly and works on user defined values (real time data, material properties etc.)to simulate the cases along with comparative analysis with different materials under same ambient condition to predict the most efficient combination of materials, shape, and size etc.in terms of temperature maintenance.
The primary objective of the work/project is to minimize the energy utilisation for thermal comfort maintenance in particular and minimization of fossil fuel application in general by designing of area specific self-sustained standalone passive shelter at defined atmospheric climatic condition.
•
Development of Software based model for predicating the suitable shelter design including suitable material, size, shape etc. with the objective of thermal comfort maintenance in passive shelter installed in different atmospheric conditions. This work involves simple feeding of collected data and material properties in developed model and outcome shows in terms of most efficient design with materials for thermal comfort maintenance in a particular region The Developed Model should be capable of giving/solving the following tasks: