Cooling an unmanned aerial vehicle
AssigneeT-Mobile USA, Inc.
InventorsJoshua Finger, Sean Murphy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for cooling an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In some examples, a heat sink is coupled to a portion of the UAV that is to be cooled. One or more heat pipes are coupled to the shim, and extend to one or more propulsion engines of the UAV. Liquid in a heat pipe is heated to gaseous form at the heat sink, and the vapor travels to a portion of the heat pipe near the propulsion engine, where the vapor is cooled by air moved by the propulsion engine, upon which the vapor returns to liquid form and travels back to the heat sink.
Claims20
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:
- a propulsion engine configured to generate at least one of lift or directional control for the UAV;
- a network cell;
- and
- a heat pipe, wherein a first portion of the heat pipe is coupled to the network cell, and wherein a second portion of the heat pipe is located proximal to the propulsion engine.
A method of forming an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:
- providing a network cell;
- surrounding at least a portion of the network cell with a heat sink;
- attaching a first portion of a heat pipe to the heat sink;
- positioning a second portion of the heat pipe proximal to a propulsion engine of the UAV;
- and
- disposing a liquid inside the heat pipe to conduct heat away from the network cell.
A method for cooling an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), comprising:
- operating the UAV, which comprises a network cell;
- heating a first liquid within a heat pipe to a vapor with heat generated by the network cell;
- transferring the vapor to a first portion of the heat pipe that is located proximal to a propulsion engine of the UAV;
- and
- condensing the vapor to a second liquid via transferring heat from the vapor to an air flow generated by the propulsion engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.