Acceleration Insensitive Heat Sinks for Airborne Directed Energy Systems

The use of the heat of vaporization of the coolant can significantly reduce the required flow rate, and this reduction flows down throughout the thermal management system. Two-phase systems, however, are subject to buoyancy effects which can make them vulnerable to high-g maneuvers of military aircraft. Two-phase microchannel coolers can be designed such that surface tension effects dominate buoyancy forces, even in high g environments, desensitizing the thermal and flow performance to aircraft maneuvers. In the proposed effort, a two-phase microchannel cooling system with large surface tension forces will be designed, fabricated and tested to demonstrate operation. The result will be a compact, survivable cooling system with a significant reduction in flow rate compared to a single-phase water-cooled microchannel systems. Approved for Public Release 14-MDA-8047 (14 Nov 14)