Applications of Advanced Cooling Technology in Avionics System for Aerospace Vehicle

Abstract

With extensive applications of high power electronic devices in modern avionics systems, more effective heat transfer technology has to be developed and applied to solve high heat flux/load cooling issues. Pulsating heat pipe (PHP), an advanced passive cooling technology, which has a simple internal structure, lower manufacture cost, lightweight, and high heat transfer capability, is selected to improve the avionics system thermal management in this paper. Investigation efforts are focused on reducing thermal resistance from heat sources on print circuit board (PCB) to external heat sink of avionics chassis by employing PHP technology. Experimental results indicate that the PHP is capable of longer distance and higher power heat transfer, and temperature gradients are significantly reduced comparing to traditional thermal designs. Additionally, the PHP performance characteristics, such as temperature fluctuation, orientation and transient effects are explored and analyzed in this application.