Thermoacoustic Cooling for Surface Combatants

Thermoacoustic cooling technology uses high amplitude acoustic standing waves in inert gasses to pump heat It requires no toxic, ozone-depleting, or global warming gasses and has few or no moving parts, no sliding seals and requires no lubrication for robust and very low maintenance operation. Thermoacoustic cooling units have been demonstrated aboard the Space Shuttle in 1992 and aboard the USS Deyo (DD 989) in 1995 to cool radar electronics. Currently, a 3-ton electrically driven unit is being built for shipboard application. This 3-ton unit will enable the ship designer to provide greater combat system survivability through distributed system architecture and reduced manning by unit simplicity and resulting high reliability. Additionally, waste heat cooling is an emerging thermoacoustic technology that could utilize stack gas heat from main gas turbine engines or from gas turbines generators to create shipboard cooling. The benefits of this waste heat cooling is lower infrared (IR) signature and reduced fuel consumption.