Flight deck heat spreader

Deployment of modern aircrafts such as MV-22 Osprey or F35B Joint Strike Fighter has caused buckling of aircraft carrier ship flight decks due to excessive heat impact from aircraft engine exhaust plumes during landing. This work describes a development of Flight Deck Heat Spreader (FDHS) that is placed over a flight deck landing spot to protect it from hot exhaust plumes. The FDHS consists of aluminum panels with supporting pillars, aluminum wick sintered directly to panels and supporting pillars, water with corrosion inhibitor working fluid, and is sealed by welding together individual panels. The FDHS operates similar to a vapor chamber i.e. water vapor spreads the heat. The FDHS has 60% of the weight of solid aluminum of the same size, it is rigid with good strength and mechanical impact loading resistance, and it can be scaled to large areas of more than 50 m2. This paper focuses on thermal modeling of the FDHS, fabrication and tests of 450 cm2 and 3721 cm2 FDHS prototypes, and selection of working fluid corrosion inhibitor. FDHS was demonstrated to effectively shield the flight deck during high temperature thermal exposure and that the FDHS cools 8-times faster than similar weight aluminum alloy plate.