Directed energy systems, which include lasers, are a hot research topic for the military but designing them to be small and mobile is tough because they have high heat flux and short pulse duration. That means they get hot, extremely fast, and need big cooling units to stop components from cooking and help maintain a precise wavelength and beam quality. The discovery of thermal energy storage via shape memory alloys provides an unprecedented two order of magnitude improvement in the cooling figure of merit, defined by the product of the material latent heat and thermal conductivity.“This opens a new paradigm of phase change material design, through which scientists can eliminate the need for heavy/large volume fin structures and fabricate thermal energy storage and heat transfer structures entirely out of metallic shape memory alloys.”
Scientists working at a U.S. Army laboratory are exploring the heat transfer properties of a strange class of metals that can return to their original shape when heated. They’re called Shape Memory Alloys, and the most common is made of nickel and titanium. They’re already used as braces to move crooked teeth and as stints to open clogged arteries, and recent testing indicated they’ll be great for dealing with all the heat created when powering a high-energy laser. “In recent years, researchers and companies have attempted to develop smarter, more efficient and
