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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsMichael J. Cannell, Roger Cooley, Richard W. Garman, Geoffrey Green, Peter N. Harrison, Joseph D. Walters
Estimating the term…
A pin array is connectively disposed between a surface region of a heat sink and a surface region of an entity to be cooled. Cooling fluid flows between the heat sink's surface region and the entity's surface region, the fluid flowing adjacent each surface region and through the space occupied by the pins, the fluid thereby being agitated by the pins. Frequent inventive practice attributes the pins with supportability of the entity. The pins can be made to be thermally nonconductive, the heat transfer thus being primarily founded on thermally convective principles involving the cooling fluid, the invention thus being effective in the absence of significant heat conduction from the entity to the heat sink. Typical inventive practice prescribes that a given array is patterned in an orderly fashion, all pins therein are parallel and each pin therein has the same cross-sectional geometry; however, there can be disparity between or among pins in any or all such respects. A pin's cross-sectional geometry can describe any shape—rectilinear, curvilinear or some combination thereof. The configurational regularity of the pins promotes the uniformity of heat transference from the entity's surface region.
A heat sink device comprising a structure which includes a foundation section and plural thermally nonconductive protrusions, said foundation section having an upper surface, said protrusions being situated on said upper surface, said structure being adaptable to engagement with an object and to combination with a fluid wherein:
Cooling apparatus for application to a body, said apparatus comprising fluidity means and a member, said body having a body surface portion, said member having a member surface portion and a plurality of pins projecting therefrom, said pins being made of a thermally nonconductive material, said pins each having a pin end surface portion opposite said member surface portion, said fluidity means including means emissive of a fluid which is flowable in a generally straight flow direction contiguously along said member surface portion and said body surface portion when said body surface portion communicates with at least some said pin end surface portions, there being an essentially non-thermal interface between said body and said member during said communication, there being the generation of turbulence by at least some said pins during said flow, wherein as a result of said non-thermal interface said apparatus effects said cooling of said body at least substantially in the absence of thermal conduction between said body and said member, and wherein as a result of said turbulence said apparatus effects said cooling of said body at least substantially via thermal convection between said body and said fluid.
A method for cooling an entity, said method comprising:
A self-cooling assembly comprising a replenishably and approximately linearly flowing fluid, a thermally conductive first body having an approximately flat first surface, a second body having an approximately flat second surface, and an approximately homogeneous arrangement of approximately parallel, approximately congruent, thermally nonconductive pins;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.