THERMAL AND THERMIONIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A LARGE-SCALE EXPERIMENTAL THERMIONIC CONVERTER

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1964

OSTI ID:4070709

Vary, A

A thermionic energy converter based on a coaxial diode corfiguration was used to obtain information relative to problems associated with instrumenting and heating a large-scale converter and to determine certain thermal and thermionic characteristics. The cylindrical tungsten cathode, having an emitting area of 73.7 square centimeters, was operated at temperatures in the range 1200 to 2000 deg K. Diode thermal characteristics such as temperature gradients, temperature ratios, heat-flow distributions, and thermal emissivities were studied. Thermionic characteristics were determined in both a vacuum and a cesium vapor atmosphere. The investigation defined problems associated with thermal gradients on emitting areas, interelectrode resistive leakage caused by vapor deposition, determination of heat-transfer properties, and measurement of cathode emission properties. (auth)

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Lewis Research Center, Cleveland
• NSA Number: NSA-18-014786
• OSTI ID: 4070709
• Report Number(s): NASA-TR-R-192
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ADSORPTION
CATHODES
CESIUM
CONFIGURATION
CONVERSION
CYLINDERS
DIODES
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRODES
ELECTRON TUBES
EMISSION
ENERGY
HEAT TRANSFER
HEATING
INSTRUMENTS
MEASURED VALUES
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
OPERATION
PHYSICS
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
TEMPERATURE
THERMAL RADIATION
THERMIONICS
THERMODYNAMICS
TUNGSTEN
VACUUM
VAPORS