Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Cryogenics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cryogenics
Research paper
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: This paper reports on the experimentally-measured conductance, stiffness, and particulate contamina-
Received 7 September 2016 tion of pyrolytic graphite film thermal straps. This work was aimed at assessing the feasibility of replac-
Received in revised form 8 October 2016 ing standard aluminum foil in thermal straps with graphite film, which is more conductive and lighter.
Accepted 10 October 2016
Four different U-shaped straps with similar cross-sections and terminals were tested in the study.
Available online 1 November 2016
Three of the straps had a three-inch long flexible section. One of these was made from aluminum
1100 foil, and two were made from Pyrovo pyrolytic graphite film (PGF). One of the PGF straps was fab-
Keywords:
ricated with an aluminized mylar blanket that was sealed at the terminals. The last strap was made from
Pyrolytic graphite film
Flexible thermal link
PGF, was blanketed, and was six inches long. The conductance of each strap was measured as a function
Annealed pyrolytic graphite of mean strap temperature ranging from 60 K to 300 K. The peak measured conductance of the three-inch
PGF and aluminum straps were 1.0 W/K at 162 K and 0.28 W/K at 64 K, respectively. The conductance of
all straps converged to around 0.3 W/K as the mean strap temperature approached 60 K. In addition, the
peak conductance of the six-inch PGF strap was 0.83 W/K at 150 K. The fact that its peak conductance was
near the conductance of the three-inch PGF strap indicated that the thermal resistance of the terminals in
the PGF straps was significant. For a given temperature, the conductance varied by as much as 15% for
two units of the same strap design. One of the straps was thermally cycled from 300 K to 60 K ten times.
Its conductance was unchanged by the thermal cycling. Furthermore, one of the six-inch long PGF straps
was subjected to random vibration. The random vibration spectrum was designed so that one terminal
achieved a maximum displacement of 0.25 in. from its neutral position in three orthogonal axes while
the other was held stationary. The conductance of this strap was unaffected by the random vibration test.
The straps were also tested for the level of contamination introduced to the environment. The bare
aluminum and bare PGF straps had equal particulate cleanliness levels while the encapsulated PGF strap
had a lower one. Finally, the dynamic stiffness of one of the six-inch strap was measured to be less than
0.5 lb/in. in all directions for temperatures between 200 and 300 K.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction and background cryocooler. Finally, the strap must not introduce other
contaminants onto the focal plane.
Thermal straps are intended to achieve a thermal coupling and Thermal straps consist of two rigid end-pieces (terminals) sep-
a structural decoupling between cryogenic components [1]. They arated by a flexible middle section composed of numerous thin lay-
often physically connect a mechanical cooling source, such as a ers of foil or film. The flexible elements and terminals are thermally
cryocooler, to infrared (IR) detectors and focal planes possessing linked by soldering, swaging, welding, or other proprietary meth-
highly critical alignment requirements. Mechanical flexibility of ods [1]. The thermal performance of a thermal strap is evaluated
the strap is needed to accommodate launch loads as well as isolate in terms of its thermal conductance, G (in W/K) [1]. Pure copper
the forces exported by the cryocooler to the IR detector or focal straps provide excellent thermal performance, however they suffer
plane. In addition, small mass is needed to minimize the launch from large mass and stiffness. The thermal conductivity of pure
loads on thin-walled cryocooler coldfingers. Large thermal aluminum is 40% smaller than that of pure copper at 300 K [2].
conductance of the strap is needed for efficient operation of the However, pure aluminum possesses density and stiffness that are
30% and 60% than that of pure copper, respectively [3]. Aluminum
thermal straps often meet the mass, conductivity, flexibility, and
reliability requirements needed [4]. However, Pyrovo pyrolytic
⇑ Corresponding author at: 4800 Oak Grove Drive M/S 157-316, Pasadena, CA
graphite film (PGF) has emerged as a new candidate for the flexible
91109-8099, USA.
material in thermal straps. Its thermal conductivity at 300 K is
E-mail address: ian.m.mckinley@jpl.nasa.gov (I.M. McKinley).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cryogenics.2016.10.002
0011-2275/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
I.M. McKinley et al. / Cryogenics 80 (2016) 174–180 175
approximately 3.5 and 6 times greater than pure copper and pure specifies the strap material, centerline length, blanketing, mass,
aluminum, respectively [2]. In addition, its thermal conductivity at and conductance measured by Thermotive at 304 K of each strap.
100 K is approximately 10 and 16.5 times greater than pure copper The blanketing consisted of a 4 lm thick sealed mylar blanket
and pure aluminum, respectively [2]. Furthermore, its density is equipped with a HEPA filter to allow venting and mitigate potential
much smaller than that of copper and aluminum. The specific ther- particle contamination. Version 1 was a standard aluminum strap
mal conductivity of a material, defined as its thermal conductivity against which various characteristics of the Pyrovo PGF straps
divided by its density, provides a figure of merit for thermal strap could be compared. This version was made from aluminum 1100
comparison. The specific thermal conductivity at 300 K of pyrolytic foils which feature a thermal conductivity of 340 W/m K at 60 K
graphite, pure aluminum, and pure copper are 0.63, 0.088, and which is 32% lower than that of 99.999% (5-nines) aluminum [1].
0.045 W m2/kg K, respectively [2]. In addition to being an excellent Each terminal had five 3.6 mm diameter mounting holes in a circu-
thermal conductor, PGF is highly flexible possessing a modulus of lar pattern with a diameter of 33 mm. Version 3 had the same
elasticity of 23 GPa at 300 K as measured by beam deflection [5]. geometry as version 1 and was approximately twice as expensive.
The modulus of elasticity of PGF is 5 and 3 times less than that Also, the electrical conductance of the PGF straps varied from 1.0 to
of pure copper and pure aluminum, respectively [3]. 134.2 ohms. Note that this was not a parameter that was con-
Although PGF meets the requirements of providing excellent trolled for this study. Finally, note that Thermotive Pyrovo PGF
thermal coupling per unit mass as well as providing sufficient straps typically do not have any exposed graphite. However, Ther-
mechanical decoupling, there are uncertainties related to (i) the motive agreed to fabricate a pair of PGF straps (version 2) without
contamination it introduces to its environment and (ii) its reliabil- the standard mylar blanketing for this study.
ity. One approach to eliminating contamination is to encapsulate
annealed pyrolytic graphite (APG). Thermacore Inc. has developed
and patented an APG material that can be encapsulated by any 2.2. Conductance test
number of metals, composites, plastics, or ceramics. However,
the encapsulating shell is thick and causes the resulting structure The conductance of straps 1-I, 3-I, 3-II, 4-I, and 4-II was tested
to be stiff and unsuitable as a thermal strap material. Alternatively, as a function of temperature between 60 K and 300 K in a vacuum
Thermotive LLC builds straps out of PGF and blankets them with a chamber held at a pressure less than 1 105 torr (1.33 mPa).
thin, sealed mylar blanket that does not increase the stiffness of Fig. 2 shows a schematic and Fig. 3 shows a picture of the experi-
the PGF. In addition, the sealed mylar blanket is equipped with a mental apparatus used to test conductance. The bottom of each
high-efficiency particle air (HEPA) filter to allow venting of the strap was mounted to a copper plate, which was attached to the
blanket during pressure changes without allowing particles to pass cold tip of an APD DE-102 Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocooler
through it. This blanket serves to (i) contain graphite contamina- inside a vacuum chamber. The temperature of the copper plate
tion that could exist, (ii) protect the edges of the PGF from damage was controlled by a Lake Shore 340 Temperature Controller and
during handling, (iii) facilitate cleaning, and (iv) reduce the heated by Dale resistors. The top of the strap was heated by a Dale
exposed surface area by a factor of 100. The goal of this study resistor providing constant heat load through an interface plate.
was to assess the thermal performance and contamination charac- This resistor had two wires connected to each terminal. One set
teristics of Pyrovo PGF thermal straps in comparison to ones made of wires supplied the current and the other measured the voltage
from aluminum 1100. Moreover, the reliability of the PGF straps at the resistor. In addition, the wires were used to suspend the
was assessed by subjecting them to thermal cycling and random top terminal so that it did not make contact with the bottom ter-
vibration. minal. The top and bottom terminal of the straps each had two
Lake Shore DT670 diodes mounted on bolt holes. The temperature
of each terminal was defined as the mean reading of the two
2. Materials and methods
diodes. The strap was enclosed in a temperature-controlled alu-
minum radiation shield in order to minimize radiative heat trans-
2.1. Thermal strap design
fer with the walls of the vacuum chamber. The temperature at the
bottom of the shield was approximately the same as the bottom
The thermal strap design consisted of a U-shaped flexible sec-
strap terminal. The temperature of the top of the shield was con-
tion made of 180 foils that were 0.001 in. (0.0254 mm) thick and
trolled to within 5 K of the top terminal of the strap by a Lake Shore
0.75 in. (19.05 mm) wide. Four versions of the thermal strap were
340 using Minco 180 ohm Kapton film heaters. The temperature of
conceived and two of each version were purchased from Thermo-
the top of the shield was such that the mean of the top and bottom
tive LLC. Fig. 1 shows a photograph of versions 2, 3, and 4. Table 1
shield temperatures was the same as the mean strap temperature.
In addition, the inside of the shield was lined with multi-layer
insulation (MLI) to further reduce radiative heat transfer between
the shield and the strap. Moreover, the aluminum strap was spiral
wrapped with 3 layers of 20 lm thick aluminized mylar as it would
be in a flight configuration. The mylar wrap served as a radiative
heat transfer shield between the strap and its surroundings. The
Pyrovo PGF straps were not spiral wrapped because their mylar
shield blanketing served as a radiative heat transfer shield. Finally,
the outside of the aluminum radiation shield was covered with MLI
to reduce heat transfer with the vacuum chamber.
For each conductance test, a constant heat load of 4 W was
applied to one end of the strap as the copper plate temperature
varied between 50 K and 300 K, and then a 6 W heat load was
applied to each strap for at least five temperatures between 50 K
and 300 K. Furthermore, strap 3-I was thermally cycled between
300 K and 60 K ten times. The conductance was measured at
Fig. 1. Photograph of different versions of the straps. 60 K and 300 K during each cycle.
176 I.M. McKinley et al. / Cryogenics 80 (2016) 174–180
Table 1
Strap properties. Conductance G reported by Thermotive, LLC.
Version Unit Strap material Length (in.) Blanketed Mass (g) G at 304 K (W/K)
1 I Aluminum 1100 3 No 79.32 0.22
II 81.08 0.24
2 I Pyrovo PGF 3 No – 1.08
II 62.58 1.09
3 I Pyrovo PGF 3 Yes 64.07 1.11
II 64.57 1.04
4 I Pyrovo PGF 6 Yes 78.19 0.68
II 76.75 0.67
Table 2
Random vibration spectrum.
verify that the random vibration test did not alter the thermal
performance of the strap.
Fig. 5. Photograph of the test apparatus used to subject strap 4-I to random vibration.
178 I.M. McKinley et al. / Cryogenics 80 (2016) 174–180
PGF strap 3-I at 60 K and 300 K did not change after the strap
was cooled to 60 K ten times.
Fig. 7 also shows that, for a given mean strap temperature, the
difference in conductance between two PGF straps of the same ver-
sion was as large as 15%. This variability was likely due to differ-
ences in the thermal resistance between the PGF strap and the
terminals because all other strap characteristics are well-
controlled. In fact, the bond between the strap and the terminal
was achieved using both chemical bonds and mechanical means.
On the contrary, aluminum thermal straps typically have a pres-
sure weld bond swaged strap to terminal interface that provides
a highly repeatable, small thermal resistance [1,7]. The fact that
the conductance of the 600 (152.4 mm) PGF straps was much greater
than half the conductance of the 300 PGF straps indicates that the
strap-terminal thermal resistance is significant. The trends of the
measured conductance of these straps as a function of temperature
closely follow those of thermal conductivity versus temperature
for 5-nines aluminum and PG [1]. However, for any given temper-
ature between 60 K and 300 K, the ratio of the conductance of the
Fig. 6. Temperatures measured in different locations as a function of mean strap 300 PGF straps to that of the 300 aluminum strap was not as large as
temperature with 4 W applied to the aluminum strap 1-I. The maximum temper- the ratio of the thermal conductivity of PG to 5-nines aluminum
ature differences T shield;C T strap;C and T strap;H T shield;H were approximately 4 K. [1]. This is further evidence that the strap-terminal interface on
the PG straps has a large associated thermal resistance. Further-
Furthermore, the maximum temperature difference between the more, the conductance of the PGF straps measured in this study
cold temperatures of the strap and shield ðT shield;C T strap;C Þ as well around 300 K differed from that measured by Thermotive at
as the hot temperatures of the strap and shield ðT strap;H T shield;H Þ 304 K. This difference was due to the fact that the strap tempera-
were approximately 4 K. tures were defined differently in the two tests. The conductance
Fig. 7 shows the measured conductance as a function of mean reported by Thermotive defined the strap temperature using a sin-
strap temperature for all of the thermal straps tested. The conduc- gle temperature sensor on each terminal located in its center, and
tance was measured over at least ten minutes, and the mean is the conductance reported by Thermotive was verified in this study
shown. The conductance of the 3 in. (76.2 mm) PGF straps was by placing temperature diodes at these locations. Moreover, the
approximately 3.5 and 5 times greater than that of the 3 in. alu- conductance of the aluminum strap 1-I was the same regardless
minum strap at 300 K and 160 K, respectively. The conductance of how the strap temperature was defined. In other words, the
of the PGF straps peaked between 150 and 160 K while that of temperature gradient in the terminal of the aluminum straps was
the aluminum strap was largest at 60 K. In addition, the conduc- negligible while that in the PGF straps was not.
tance of all the straps measured was approximately 0.3 W/K at Fig. 8 shows the specific conductance as a function of mean
60 K. The conductance was not measured at lower temperatures strap temperature for the 300 straps 1-I, 3-I, and 3-II. The specific
because they converged at 60 K. In fact, the thermal conductivity conductance was defined as the conductance shown in Fig. 7
of aluminum 1100 increases with decreasing temperature from divided by the strap masses in Table 1. The mass of the aluminum
60 K to 40 K while that of pyrolytic graphite decreases [1]. Further- strap 1-I reported in Table 1 included the three-layer spiral
more, the conductance measured with 4 W and 6 W applied to the wrapped mylar that was applied during the conductance test. In
strap heater was indistinguishable; in fact, Fig. 7 contains conduc- addition, the mass of the aluminum strap 1-II reported in Table 1
tances measured at both heat loads. Finally, the conductance of did not include a mylar wrap. Fig. 8 captures the superiority of
Fig. 7. Measured conductance as a function of mean strap temperature. Fig. 8. Measured specific conductance as a function of mean strap temperature.
I.M. McKinley et al. / Cryogenics 80 (2016) 174–180 179
3.2. Contamination
straps was significant. For a given temperature, the conductance Charles Phillips, Andres Andrade, Paul MacNeal, and Jim Post for
varied by as much as 15% for two units of the same strap design. their contributions to this work.
Furthermore, the conductance of the six-inch long PGF strap 4-I
was unchanged after the strap was subjected to random vibration References
that displaced one terminal a maximum of 0.25 in. from its neu-
tral position in three orthogonal axes while the other was held sta- [1] Bugby D, Marland B. Flexible conductive links. In: Donabedian M, editor.
Spacecraft thermal control handbook volume II: cryogenics. The Aerospace
tionary. The conductance was also not affected by thermally Press; 2003. p. 327–46.
cycling the strap from 300 K to 60 K ten times. The bare aluminum [2] Incropera FP, DeWitt DP, Bergman T, Lavine A. Fundamentals of heat and mass
and bare PGF straps had equal particulate cleanliness levels while transfer. 6th ed. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.; 2006.
[3] Beer Jr FP, Johnston ER, DeWolf JT. Mechanics of materials. 4th ed. New York,
the blanketed PGF strap had a lower one. Finally, the dynamic stiff- NY: McGraw-Hill; 2006.
ness of the six-inch PGF strap was less than 0.5 lb/in. in all mea- [4] Urquiza E, Vasquez C, Rodriguez JI, Van Gorp B. Development and testing of an
sured directions for temperatures between 200 and 300 K. innovative two-arm focal-plane thermal strap (TAFTS). Cryogenics
2012;52:306–9.
[5] Pappis J, Blum SL. Properties of pyrolytic graphite. J Am Ceram Soc
Acknowledgements 1961;44:592–7.
[6] Institute of Environmental Science and Technology. Product cleanliness levels –
applications, requirements, and determination; 2013.
The work described in this paper was carried out at the Jet
[7] Williams B, Jensen S, Batty J. An advanced solderless flexible thermal link. In:
Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a Ross Jrl R, editor. Cryocoolers 9. Plenum Press; 1997. p. 807–12.
contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. [8] Sparr L, Boyle R, Nguyen L, Frisch H, Banks S, James E, et al. Design and test of
potential cryocooler cold finger interfaces. In: Kittell P, editor. Advances in
In addition, the authors would like to thank Jerami Mennella, Euge-
cryogenic engineering. Plenum Press; 1994. p. 1253–62.
nio Urquiza, Ramesham Rajeshuni, Tim McCann, Howard Tseng,