Efficient Thermal Energy Storage (TES) for Mega-Joule Class Weapon Systems

High capacity Thermal Energy Storage (TES) systems that can rapidly store peak waste heat using phase change material (PCM) and then dissipate it gradually during normal operation are the most ideal and the most compact Thermal Management (TM) systems possible for advanced weapon systems such as high power laser diode arrays and microwaves. These weapon systems are typically powered cyclically and intermittently with peak requirement potentially reaching up to 1000 kJ/s or 1000 kW per system and with a substantially lower average thermal dissipation requirement during normal operation. Various PCM materials offer high latent heat of fusion and the highest possible thermal storage density. Furthermore, their near isothermal characteristics during the phase-change and re-constitution processes are perfectly compatible with advanced micro-electronic systems that need to operate within a very narrow temperature range in order to achieve the optimal performance. Three different heat thermal energy storage (TES) approaches are proposed for evaluation. The feasibility will be evaluated and critical technical issues will be identified and evaluated in Phase I. A successful demonstration of the proposed technology will lead to full scale development and demonstration for a real system in Phase II.