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Abstract
There has been much development into high energy sensors and weapons in recent years to enhance the self-defence capability of warships. The impact of the short-term high energy demands on the ships’ electrical systems have been much reviewed but there are also requirements to adapt the ships’ cooling systems to match the needs of the finely-tuned lasers and other associated equipment. Although the use of water buffer tank (WBT) as heat storage with Phase Change Materials (PCM) has been considered, the increase in power generation may also allow increased cooling capacity from the Diesel generator set waste heat. Using an absorption chiller plant (ACP), this heat can be used to create additional short-term Chilled Water (CW) capacity which can then cool the WBT.
Such a CW booster may enable the WBT size to be smaller and/or may allow for longer sustained use of the mission systems without any limitation due to the equipment’s cooling requirements.
The paper reports on studies to develop a mathematical model of the thermal behaviour of the cooling systems and the associated set of equipment for an indicative system. The Matlab model allowed a time-based analysis of the power generation and cooling system to be assessed using data which had been gathered on the time-variant behaviour of the DG sets, and the ACP. Qualified assumptions based on scientific models are made about the behaviour of the heat transfer systems.
The results show the degree to which a DG set, an ACP and a PCM-based heat storage arrangement can be matched to achieve a sustained performance to meet both Laser Direct Energy Weapons(LDEW) power supply and thermal management requirements.