Thermal Management System for Cooling and Heating of Transit Cases

The military forces are relying heavily on transit cases to safeguard their sensitive equipment. However, extreme temperatures have caused equipment to fail during mission critical operations, especially with today's battlefields taking place in extremeclimatic conditions such as the sands of Middle East or the fuselage of an aircraft at 10000 feet making it necessary to maintain constant working temperatures during operating times. We are proposing a Transit Case Thermal Management System (TCTMS)designed to fit standard transit cases with shock mounted chassis capable of supporting COTS equipment ranging from 3U to 15U high. This TCTMS will also be compact, light weight and will not use harmful refrigerants. The key to the TCTMS is the use ofthermoelectric coolers (TEC). By placing TEC's between two heatsinks we are able to cool or heat the internal air of the transit case with the use of circulating fans. A simple control circuit will be integrated within the unit to regulate current flow andminimize operator interface. A feasibility analysis will be performed to balance variables such as equipment power dissipation, maximum ambient temperature, minimum ambient temperature and power consumption for an optimal thermal management system. ThisTCTMS will allow the objective force to operate more effectively on the battlefield by expanding the areas in which transit case equipment can operate. Transit cases are not just for protecting military equipment. Other typical applications include HighReliability Commercial, railways, aircraft, trucks, ships, mobile, fielded equipment exposed to hostile environments. Transport housings are designed to carry and protect 19