MAINSTREAM ENGINEERING CORP — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Current refrigerant pumping technology lacks the ability to circulate a liquid-vapor mixtu

Description

Current refrigerant pumping technology lacks the ability to circulate a liquid-vapor mixture with substantial flow resistance, which impedes development and implementation of two-phase cooling technology. Common pump designs will hydro-lock and mechanically fail instantly or suffer performance loss and eventually fail due to cavitation or worn components. Mainstream"s solution is based on an existing miniature compressor designed for vapor-compression cycles. This compressor can be modified to be a pump with capabilities of maintaining thermal management system pressures in a refrigerant system where fluid quality can vary between 5% and 95%. The Phase I effort will focus on physical testing to experimentally optimize Mainstream"s miniature pump to operate with two-phase refrigerant. With this data, a Phase II scale pump will be designed. Phase II will further develop a pump capable of 1000 hours of continuous operation between maintenance intervals. In summary, the proposed solution can meet or exceed all of the requirements set forth in the solicitation and has a high probability of success due to Mainstream"s previous expertise with robust design of advancing technology.