What happens when the brains of a thermal engineer from NASA and a professor from Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology synergize? An electrohydrodynamic (EHD)-based thermal control system is born.
Jeffery Didion, a thermal engineer at the NASA Goddard space flight center, and Dr. Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, with technical partnerships with the U.S. Air Force and National Renewable Energy Laboratory have collaborated and created a thermal control that uses no mechanical pumps, nor any other moving parts. The EHD pump operates on the electro-fluid-dynamic principle, also known as electrokinetics. A shaped electrostatic field is produces which creates a hydrostatic pressure in the coolant. This forces the hot fluid through tiny ducts, like a radiator, inside a thermal cold plate away from sensitive circuitry. Size, weight, and power is saved versus conventional pumps. Overall power consumption of the device is in the half watt range. The EHD pump can be scaled for the application.
Currently the team is exploring other substrates, materials, and micro-fabrication techniques to reduce the size and increase the durability of the EHD pump. A prototype is scheduled to be sent to the International Space Station in 2013.
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