Prognostic Models for Cryo Cooling (Heat Transfer and Heat Dissipation) Systems

High performance sensors are playing an increasingly important role in all aspects of all critical DoD missions. There is a family of sensors that operate with improved sensitivities if cooled to very low (cryogenic) temperatures. For these sensors a mechanical refrigeration system (cryocooler) is required. Sest Inc. proposes to develop a full-scale reliability based Prognostic Health Management (PHM) models/algorithms that are based on the physics of failure and actual failure data (past experience, ground tests) and integrate in to an in flight real time software tool for the Cryocooler Health Monitoring System (CHMS). The proposed CHMS shall be capable of assessing the cryocooler “health” from the viewpoint of the level of performance degradation and/or the potential for near term failure. While the proposed system is focused on the specific application to linear drive cryocoolers, especially for DoD, many of the attributes of the system can be applied to other specialized system hardware in both commercial and U.S. Government agency for situations where it is critical that all aspects of the hardware “health” and “remaining useful life” be fully understood.