Vacuum testing of high efficiency AMTEC cells

Book · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:442753

Schuller, M; Phillips, P H ^[1]; Sievers, R; Svedberg, R; Ivanenok, J ^[2]; Reiners, E; Merrill, J ^[3]; Crowley, C; Izenson, M ^[4]

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1. Laboratory/VTP, Kirtland AFB, NM (United States)
2. Advanced Modular Power Systems, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
3. ORION International Technologies, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
4. Creare, Inc., Hanover, NH (United States)

The Phillips Laboratory Power and Thermal Management Division (PL/VTP), in cooperation with JPL, AMPS, Creare, and ORION, is performing vacuum testing of high performance Alkali Metal Thermal to Electric Conversion (AMTEC) cells, including the Micro-Machined Evaporator (MME) and PL-9A cells. The MME cell was designed to test an improved evaporator, which should allow long term operation at evaporator temperatures as high as 1,100 K. The PL-9A cell was designed and built by AMPS under contract to ORION to test an improved heat shield assembly. The testing at Phillips Lab is done in a vacuum test stand which simulates the environment of an AMTEC cell operating as part of a spacecraft power system. The test configuration consists of the MME cell (later replaced by by the PL-9A cell) in the center of an array of six other AMTEC cells. The seven cells are encased in multifoil insulation. Testing shows that there is little difference between cell current/voltage performance when measured in vacuum tests compared to guard heater tests. The author are also examining the differences between fast I-V curve sweeps, recorded manually, with the cell operating at constant heat input, over a period of five minutes or less, and equilibrium I-V curve sweeps, in which the cell reaches thermal equilibrium at each data point.

• Sponsoring Organization: Department of the Air Force, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 442753
• Report Number(s): CONF-960805--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
PERFORMANCE TESTING
SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES
TEST FACILITIES
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS