Invent: Study of Issues Involved in Integrating a Directed Energy Weapon Subsystem into a High Performance Aircraft System

摘要

As energy requirements continue to grow for high-performance vehicles, power and thermal demands necessitate the conscientious organization, integration, and design of an aircraft to mitigate excess heat generation. Driving energy demands, emerging and maturing technologies, such as directed energy weapons and high-energy sensors, introduce substantial loads onto an aircraft. Examples of the former under research and development for military applications include particle beams, microwaves, and lasers. These devices offer a versatile suite of operational modes for offensive and defensive, lethal and non-lethal applications. Although promising, they present integration challenges, primarily regarding thermal management. Directed energy weapons operate at low efficiencies, generating large thermal loads over very short intervals that can quickly overwhelm a traditional thermal management scheme. In addition, they must operate at particular conditions, which introduce additional constraints. Results for the power and thermal demands that a directed energy weapon subsystem (DEWS) introduces into a high-performance aircraft are presented in this paper as is a discussion of how to appropriately manage the system-level impacts which result.