Turbulent Flow Cooled Laser Disc Mounting Vane
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional high-energy lasers face challenges in achieving stable and reliable pulse generation due to poor thermal management in optical elements, leading to thermally induced aberrations, birefringence, and potential cracking, which degrades beam quality and limits pulse energy and repetition rate for applications like laser-induced fusion and particle acceleration.
Innovation Solution
An optical assembly with mounting vanes and a manifold design that utilizes a fluid stream for cooling, featuring an input section with an elliptical leading edge, a diffuser section with flow guiding fins, and a plane section for receiving the optical element, promoting turbulent flow and reducing flow recirculation and pressure drop, thereby enhancing heat transfer and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional water cooling or no active cooling is used in optical gain media, then the structure is simple, but thermal management is poor leading to thermally induced aberrations and beam quality degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses gas (helium) flow through channels formed by stacked vanes to cool optical gain media. The gas cooling system replaces conventional water cooling, providing superior thermal management through turbulent flow while maintaining a relatively simple structural implementation using stacked flat vanes with integrated cooling channels.
2Temperature
If gas cooling is used with turbulent flow, then heat transfer efficiency is improved, but flow recirculation and instability increase causing vibration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the cooling system into multiple flat vanes stacked together, creating multiple parallel cooling channels. This segmentation allows turbulent gas flow to be maintained for efficient heat transfer while the distributed channel structure prevents large-scale flow recirculation and reduces vibration by distributing the flow instabilities across multiple independent channels.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from conventional two-dimensional cooling surfaces to a three-dimensional stacked vane structure with channels formed between multiple vanes. This dimensional approach allows turbulent gas flow to penetrate through the optical gain media more effectively while the stacked configuration provides flow stability through geometric constraints that prevent recirculation.
3Temperature
If high velocity gas flow is used for cooling, then cooling efficiency is improved, but pressure drop and flow losses increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses helium gas at elevated pressures (e.g., 4 bar) to achieve high velocity turbulent flow through the cooling channels. The high pressure parameter enables sufficient cooling efficiency while the short channel length and optimized geometry minimize pressure drop losses, allowing the system to operate at 10Hz repetition rate with effective thermal management.
4Device complexity
If slabs of gain medium are used without active cooling, then the structure is simple, but thermal expansion and stress lead to beam steering and cracking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the structural support function with the cooling function by integrating cooling channels directly into the flat vane structure that holds the optical gain media. Each vane serves dual purposes: mechanically supporting the gain medium and providing active gas cooling, thereby preventing thermal expansion and stress-induced beam steering while maintaining structural simplicity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides effective thermal management, minimizing temperature gradients and wavefront distortions, enabling high-repetition-rate pulses with reduced vibration and improved beam quality, suitable for high-energy applications like laser-induced fusion.
Implementation Method 1
cooling of the optical element in a gas or liquid stream
Implementation Method 2
The circulating fan 20 pumps the gas around the system towards the laser amplifier
Implementation Method 3
The narrow channels between the vanes and the curved leading edge accelerate the gas to produce turbulent flow between the slabs. Turbulent flow provides better cooling than laminar flow.
Implementation Method 4
The diffuser section 90 decelerates the gas and the flows merge back together at the trailing edge of the vanes
Implementation Method 5
The heat exchanger 10 cools the gas after it has passed by the gain media
Implementation Method 6
frequency conversion stages where some optical absorption occurs and many other components in which absorbed energy is converted to heat
Data Source
AI summary
A mount for an optical element such as in a laser, optical amplifier, or other optical system, is disclosed. The mount is a mounting vane for cooling the optical element by a fluid stream. The optical element may be a gain medium generating heat. The mounting vane comprises: an input section with a leading edge for meeting the fluid stream; a diffuser section which tapers to a trailing edge; and a plane section with an aperture for receiving the optical element for cooling by the fluid stream, the plane section arranged between the input section and diffuser section, wherein the diffuser section includes one or more flow guiding fins protruding from the diffuser section. The mounting vane may be stacked with a plurality of other mounting vanes in a manifold.