Self-Powered Magnetothermal Fluid Pump, Phase II

Cubesat thermal management: For smaller craft thermal rejection or management requirements, a self-powered pump would allow for the design and implementation of systems that do not consume limited electrical power resources. Remote sensor thermal management: The autonomous, self-powered pump scavenges all operational energy requirements from the thermal gradient under management, requiring neither electrical leads for device powering nor for any control signals. Long duration lunar lander projects: Actively pump thermal management concepts for lunar lander missions have in general not been considered due to parasitic power consumption. The self-powered, autonomous capability of the magnetothermal fluid pump allows for advance heat spreading and alternative thermal management system design with no additional power consumption. EVA or astronaut thermal control: Our technology can be tuned to operate with very small thermal gradient excitation with a wide range of absolute temperature ranges. As such, thermal management, including heat or cooling, could be powered through astronaut body heat, or scavenged thermal energy from avionics. High-density electronics cooling: With the exponential growth of cloud computing, social media, and internet commerce, large server farms are necessary to handle the vast data uploads and throughputs necessary maintain high bandwidth quality. Energy required to power thermal rejection technologies reduces profitability of companies, increases carbon footprints, and results in a reliance on grid power. The autonomous, self-powered magnetothermal pump proposed here would alleviate much of the costs associated with powering cooling systems, and with associated control systems. Concentrated solar energy generation: Modern multi-junction silicon photovoltaics demonstrate efficiencies far beyond those available even several years ago. However, even at 20% efficiency, significant portions of the 1kW/m2 solar irradiation incident on the panels must be converted to heat. However, in order to operate at mutli-sun concentration, advanced heat rejection systems are required in order to maintain sufficiently low junction temperatures so as not to decrease quantum conversion efficiency with PVs. Often, the power required for active cooling cannot be offset economically through increases in PV output power. As such, typical concentrated solar arrays are passively cooled with pronounced fined aluminum heat sinks. The incorporation of a self-powered fluid pump would shift the optimization of the cooling system, allowing for further solar concentration with no added energy cost. More »