Pressure Controlled Heat Pipe (PCHP) Temperature Calibrating Furnace and Controls
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) designs, develops and fabricates custom test rigs for customers. ACT has developed test rigs for applications that include:
- Single Phase and Two Phase Thermal/Fluid Test Rigs
- Flammability and Hot Surface Ignition Test Rigs
- Thermal/Optical Test Rigs
- Thermal/Compressibility Test Rigs
- Avionic Box Testing
- Temperature Calibration
Some examples of the custom test rigs fabricated at ACT:
- Clothing Flammability Test Rig for Evaluating Protective Clothing near Jet Engines: A custom test apparatus has been developed for the Air Force to evaluate the thermal behavior of fabrics near jet engines, subject to both convective and radiative heat loads, as well as open flames. The automated test hardware was developed to allow for testing against established test standards, including ISO 17492, ASTM D 4108-82, and ASTM F 1939-99a.
- Hot Surface Ignition (HSI) (Flammability Test Rig): The hot surface ignition (HSI) of flammable liquids aboard aircraft presents risk to the aircraft and personnel. ACT has developed a custom hot surface ignition test apparatus to provide a systematic evaluation of the key parameters that lead to HSI events.
- Thermal Optical Test Cart for Laser Diode Thermal Management was developed to evaluate the thermal and hydraulic performance of microchannel coolers used in laser diode thermal management. It also enables the optical characterization of emitted laser light for an additional alternative performance evaluation.
- PCHP Calibration Furnace: ACT has developed a Pressure Controlled Heat Pipe (PCHP) temperature calibrator suitable for government calibration institutions. This product features a sodium heat pipe with the ability to operate between 600°C and 1,000°C and maintain a temperature stability of +/-5mK over a 2 hour period.
- Test Rig for Simulation of ISS JEMS Module Fluid Loop: A Fluid Control Unit was developed to simulate the JEMS thermal fluid test loop on the ISS. The unit provides temperature, pressure and flow control. A vacuum pump and accumulator allows the user to evacuate and charge their unit.
- Single Phase Liquid Cold Plate Test Rigs: A test rig was developed to provide a full thermal and hydraulic performance evaluation of single-phase cold plates with different internal designs, to enable the down selection of the optimal cold plate for a given set of operating conditions.
- Pumped Two Phase Test Rigs: Pumped Two Phase (P2P) cold plates are suitable for cooling high heat fluxes, and for maintaining an isothermal surface over large areas. Custom P2P test rigs for cold plate evaluation that ACT has designed and fabricated include:
- Pumped Two-Phase Cooling for Thermal Management of High Heat Flux Devices: This test rig is used to test different high heat flux cold plates, at heat fluxes in excess of 300 W/cm2.
- Pumped Two-Phase Isothermal Cooling Test Rig: A second two phase test rig used to test two large 60 x 60 cm (2 ft. x 2 ft.) cold plates, maintaining a 25°C ± 2°C temperature across each plate.
- High Heat Flux Spray Impingement Cooling Test Apparatus: A spray cooling test rig capable of removing 1000W/cm2 from an exposed CPU, taking single jet impingement data, with three different fluids (HFE-7000, methanol, and water).