- Liquid Cooling
- Pumped Two-Phase
- Liquid-Air HX
- Custom Thermal, Fluid, and Mechanical Systems
- Tekgard® ECUs
- Vaphtek™ Environmental Control Units
- Tekgard® Chillers
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) designs, develops and fabricates custom fluid, thermal, and mechanical systems for customers. ACT will handle all of the design and engineering, and deliver robust turnkey solutions. Once the design is complete we can either provide detailed plans for customer sourcing or quote fabrication and installation of the entire system. Many companies offer various components of complete thermal management systems, ACT does the entire system level design and analysis required to make sure all of the individual components work together to meet your specific requirements. We specify and integrate all of the components to assure flow rates, pressure drops, serviceability, structural and thermal requirements are all met in a robust, long-life cooling system.
ACT has developed custom systems for the applications that include:
- Single Phase and Two Phase Thermal/Fluid Systems
- Vapor Compression Systems with Integrated Thermal Storage
- Temperature Calibration Systems
- Flammability and Hot Surface Ignition Test Systems
- Thermal/Optical Test Systems
- Thermal/Compressibility Test Systems
- Avionic Box Testing System
Custom Single-Phase Cooling Systems
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. offers a complete line of liquid cooling solutions for all markets, handling all of the design and engineering, and delivering robust turnkey solutions.
- Single-Phase Liquid Cold Plate Test System: A test system 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.
- ISS JEMS Module Fluid Control Loop Simulator: 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.
Custom Pumped Two-Phase Cooling Systems
Pumped Two Phase (P2P) systems have a number of advantages over pumped single phase systems, including lower flow rates and pumping power, cooling high heat fluxes, and maintaining an isothermal surface over large cold plate areas. Custom P2P systems that ACT has designed and fabricated include:
- Pumped Two-Phase Cooling for Thermal Management of High Heat Flux Devices: This system 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 System: A second custom two phase system was 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.
Other Cooling Systems
- High Heat Flux Spray Impingement Cooling System: A spray cooling system capable of removing 1000W/cm2 from an exposed CPU, taking single jet impingement data, with three different fluids (HFE-7000, methanol, and water). One of ACT’s customers was interested in using spray and jet impingement cooling to remove high heat fluxes (1000W/cm2) from the surface of a CPU. A test section was designed capable of taking single jet impingement heat transfer data using Intel’s supplied 34980A thermal test platform. Figure 5 shows an overall view of the test section with the Sil-clamp bolted to the base plate. The Thermal Test Vehicle is also shown in place. The 8 bolts hold the Sil-clamp in a precise location above the base plate and also provide even pressure around the O-rings to the acrylic cylinder. Figure 17 shows the flow exiting the nozzles at the projected angle as well as the projected impact of the spray with the die. In the design process the 3-D CAD software was used to verify no flow interactions. The test apparatus was designed to test at various inlet temperatures from -10°C to 125°C and work with three different fluids (HFE-7000, Methanol, and Water). The apparatus successfully measured heat transfer coefficients at various locations along the die, providing the customer with the precise measurements required for their application; see Figure 5.
- Vapor Compression Systems with Optional Thermal Storage: ACT has developed efficient, compact vapor compression systems (VCS) that can handle very high pulsed heat loads and/or maintain highly isothermal cold plates. Some or our systems incorporate thermal energy storage within the system, which in turn allows the system Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) to be substantially reduced.
- 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. ACT has developed a pressure controlled heat pipe (PCHP) calibrator suitable for government calibration institutions. The purpose of the calibration product is to calibrate up to 5 thermometers to a reference thermometer. The PCHP calibrator (shown in Figure 1 at top of page) 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 (some temperature data are shown in Figure 2, below). The heat pipe features 6 thermo-wells located within the vapor space of the heat pipe, maintaining a high degree of temperature uniformity between the thermometers. The transient stability of the heat pipe is maintained by actively controlling the pressure of the heat pipe’s vapor space, ensuring a stable saturation temperature within the heat pipe. The pressure is manipulated by changing the effective volume of the heat pipe, simply by moving a sealed bellows. ACT developed the control schemes, data logging features, and all mechanical features of the turnkey system.
- Heat Pipe Blackbody Cavities: ACT designs and builds custom heat pipe black body systems including the heating/cooling elements and temperature controllers, which are used to calibrate thermal radiation sensors.
- Clothing Flammability Test System 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 System): 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.
Hot Surface Ignition Test Cart
- Thermal Optical Test System for Laser Diode Thermal Management was developed to evaluate the thermal and hydraulic performance of micro-channel coolers used in laser diode thermal management. It also enables the optical characterization of emitted laser light for an additional alternative performance evaluation.