High Heat Flux Thermal Management for HPM Sources 2004-01-3203

A thermal management concept providing high heat flux capability for High Power Microwave (HPM) source devices used in Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) Systems is presented. Obstacles to the practical application of DEW to aircraft require effective solutions to high heat flux thermal management. Our approach utilizes enhanced cooling mechanisms (subcooled nucleate flow-boiling) coupled with an optimized cooling channel geometry fully integrated within the HPM source device structure. The concept developed has demonstrated effective cooling for heat fluxes up to 900 W/cm². The design and integration of our thermal management system with HPM source hardware is presented. In addition, experimental testing validating the thermal capability and demonstrating the overall operation of the HPM pulsed-power system is discussed.