Self Contained Two-Phase Thermal Management System

Thermal management is a growing problem in all areas of military systems, due to increased use of electronic systems, and more stringent requirements on efficiency, size, and weight. In the case of next generation Army ground vehicles, heat sources will provide significant heating at various locations around the body. These sources must be cooled independent of the vehicle’s thermal management system, meaning that the thermal management system must provide its own coolant, circulation system, and means of dissipating the waste heat to ambient. Such a system will require coolers to extract the waste heat from the heat sources, coolant lines or a coolant “bus” to transport the heat away from the heat sources, and a heat exchanger to reject the heat to the ambient environment.