Low Power, Compact Aircraft Thermal Management System

Avionics electronics operating in high temperature ambient conditions have significantly decreased reliability and lifetime.  The standard rule-of-thumb is to halve the life of an electronic device for every 10 ¢XC (18 ¢XF) increase in temperature.  As aircraft electronics becomes increasingly complex and power dense, the greater the temperature in the electronics storage compartments.  These high temperatures are resulting in component overheating and mission aborts.  After considering all potential cooling techniques and performing preliminary Fluent modeling, Mainstream has determined the ideal system to provide cooling inside the electronics compartment.  Mainstream¡¦s Avionics Temperature Management System (ATMS) is about 0.5 ft3 (the size of a large shoebox), can be located on the shelving near the electronics, does not require any modification to the plane, is very reliable, can operate in any orientation, can withstand 7g loading, weighs less than 30 pounds, can provide 225 W of cooling for more than 3 hours, and has a maximum 5 W power draw.  Depending on mission objectives, base location, type of plane, and on-board electronics, an additional ATMS may be stowed on-board to provide twice the cooling.  There are no batteries or maintenance procedures that must be performed to the ATMS.   BENEFIT: The overall goal of the Phase I contract is to design, build, and test a full-scale ATMS prototype.  More specifically, at the conclusion of the Phase II contract, an approved, fully-tested, commercial product will be available for sale to the Air Force that will eliminate millions of dollars of electronics maintenance and replacement costs and significantly reduce the number of mission aborts due to electronics overheating or failure prior to takeoff.  All of this is achievable in a reliable, simple, modular, and maintenance-free system that will be computationally and experimentally verified during the Phase I contract.