High Current Cooled Flexible Bus Work Systems

This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop an innovative thermal management system to cool flexible bus work enabling the United States Navy to fire an electromagnetic railgun at a rate of 20 shots per minute. The proposed effort utilizes Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc.’s thermal management expertise to design and optimize an electrically isolated cooling system to actively cool railgun bus work while maintaining mechanical integrity and allowing 360° flexibility with a bend radius less than 0.5 m. The design of integrated cooling to the current transfer system enables increased high current pulse repetition rate with peak current up to 5 million amperes and total electrical action up to 250x109 A2s. Through iterative electrical and thermal design, a cooled flexible railgun bus work system will be developed. The objective is to demonstrate an innovative flexible bus work design with an integrated cooling system that supports small effective bend radii and high heat removal rates while retaining structural robustness and considers methods of terminating the bus work, including both electrical connections and connections to the cooling system.