Phase change heat sink transpiration cooling
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsNicholas Gonzalez, Adam C. Wood
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and system are provided to provide transpiration cooling for an airframe. An airframe includes a body that contains circuitry, a phase change material (PCM) that changes phase to a gas when cooling the circuitry, a fluid reservoir that retains the PCM in liquid and gaseous form, a vapor reservoir that retains the gas, a thermal sensor that detects a temperature of an external surface of the body, and a controller that control ejection of the gas from the vapor reservoir based on the temperature to control a thickness of a boundary air layer at the external surface. The controller also controls flow of the gas from the fluid reservoir to the vapor reservoir via a valve based on pressure in the vapor reservoir detected by a pressure sensor.
Claims20
A transpiration cooling system comprising a body that contains:
- electronics;
- a phase change material configured to change phase to a gas when cooling the electronics;
- a vapor reservoir configured to retain the gas;
- a connector coupled to the vapor reservoir to provide the gas to the vapor reservoir;
- a thermal sensor configured to detect a temperature of an external surface of the body;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- obtain temperature information from the thermal sensor, and
- based on the temperature information, control ejection of the gas from the vapor reservoir to control a thickness of a boundary air layer at the external surface.
An airframe comprising:
- a body configured to house at least:
- electronics;
- a phase change material configured to change phase to a gas when cooling the electronics;
- a vapor reservoir configured to retain the gas, the vapor reservoir having controllable openings to a first area of an external surface of the body;
- a surface sensor configured to detect a characteristic of a second area of the external surface of the body;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- obtain information from the surface sensor, and
- based on the information, control the openings to control ejection of the gas from the vapor reservoir to increase a thickness of a boundary air layer at the first area of the external surface and the second area of the external surface.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an air vehicle having a body that contains the one or more processors, the one or more processors to, when the instructions are executed:
- obtain pressure information of a vapor reservoir that contains a gas of a phase change material;
- control flow of the gas into the vapor reservoir from a fluid reservoir based on the pressure information, the fluid reservoir containing a liquid of a phase change material and the gas of the phase change material phase changed by cooling electronics;
- obtain temperature information from a thermal sensor configured to detect a temperature of an external surface of the body;
- determine that the temperature information indicates excessive heating of the external surface of the body;
- and
- based on the temperature information, control openings between the vapor reservoir and the external surface of the body to control ejection of the gas from the vapor reservoir to increase a thickness of a boundary air layer at the external surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.