Heating of the transmission foil separating the vacuum diodes from the laser cell in electron-beam-pumped gas lasers due to electron beam attenuation necessitates an active cooling scheme to prevent its failure under repetitively pulsed operating conditions. Attenuation of the electron beam (typically 500kV, 100kA and 100ns) produces a strong and pulsed volumetric heat source in the relatively thin (~25μm thick) stainless-steel foil causing it to fail. An experimental and numerical investigation has been conducted to study the cooling effectiveness of high-speed near-wall jets for a single stainless-steel foil strip simulating the geometry between two hibachi ribs in the Electra KrF gas laser developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. The foil is placed inside a channel with continuous gas flow simulating the circulating laser gas. Detailed studies include two jet types (planar and circular) and two injection methods (parallel and impinging) for two designs of hibachi (flat and scalloped). The planar jet flows parallel to the circulating laser gas along the entire foil span. The other configuration uses small diameter (0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 mm) circular jets positioned in two staggered rows located on the foil's two edges along the height of the foil (~30 cm). The jets are issued obliquely towards the foil. For both jet configurations, experiments are conducted at different jet velocities, impingement angles and jet-foil spacing to identify the optimal parameters to be used in the actual hibachi foil cooling. Experimental results are also compared to the predictions from CFD simulations using FLUENT®. The results of this research show that near-wall impinging circular jets can effectively cool the foil separating the vacuum diodes from the laser cell in an electron beam pumped KrF laser under prototypical pulsed (5Hz) operating conditions, thereby assuring the foil's survival, while minimizing the impact on electron beam quality and laser efficiency.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/34740 |
| Date | 07 July 2010 |
| Creators | Lu, Bo |
| Publisher | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | Georgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
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