Refrigeration System with Integrated Heat Exchanger

The Airborne Laser (ABL) program has significant cooling requirements that until present can only be addressed by mechanical refrigeration systems. These include cooling of the various high powered solid state lasers currently used on the ABL for tracking and ranging as well as standby cooling for the basic hydrogen peroxide (BHP) loops on the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL). The proposed integral evaporator-condenser-subcooler uses a design similar to flat plate heat exchanger to offer an innovative and reliable heat exchanger to reduce the weight and volume of the Laser Refrigeration System (LRS) while provide improved performance, reliability and maintainability. In the proposed project, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), supported by Northrop Grumman and FlatPlate/GEA, will develop and demonstrate the integral heat exchanger in a LRS environment. The Phase I effort will demonstrate the feasibility of the concept through system trades, integration study and preliminary prototype testing. The Phase II effort will design, build and test a subscale LRS, and demonstrate its ability to support ABL cooling requirements.