Waste Heat Driven Topping Cycle for Cryogenic Terrestrial Radar Power System Heat Dissipation

Improvements in the mass, volume and efficiency of mobile radar systems appears to be an obtainable goal by using cryogenic cooling techniques to remove heat from the generator, power conditioning equipment, and antenna systems. This proposal seeks to advance a concept by which further size and efficiency improvements can be made for ground based and transportable radar systems by providing a constant temperature heat sink well below ambient temperature to which the heat dissipated from the cryocoolers can be rejected. Creation of such a sink will improve the efficiency of the cryocoolers and improve the overall system reliability since it will no longer have to communicate thermally with a widely varying and often hostile ambient temperature environment. Since these radar facilities are most often equipped with fuel driven electrical generators, a unique opportunity is available to utilize a heat driven cooling cycle in conjunction with the waste heat off the electrical generators exhaust and engine jacket. Complex compound solid vapor sorption technology appears to fit the requirements of such a cooling system. The proposed project intends to establish the feasibility of using complex compounds to improve the operating efficiency of the facility as a whole while simultaneously further reducing system mass and volume. Commercial applications of this technology will be in the industrial sector (food, beverage, and chemical processing) for use of industrial waste heat for producing refrigeration in the plant. Applications also exist for cogeneration and transportation refrigeration using engine waste heat.