Thermal management of helix used in high-power high-efficiency traveling-wave tubes

Abstract

In this paper, an approach has been presented to estimate thermal contact resistance (TCR) between helix slow-wave structure to support rod and support rod to metal envelope to study the effective heat dissipation from the helix. Based on this method, TCRs are optimized by comparing analytically and experimentally estimated helix temperature with those obtained from ANSYS simulation. Helix temperature, at a given power loss in the helix, is obtained by varying the fraction of effective resistance between helix and support rod for a given fraction of effective resistance between support rod to barrel envelope and vice versa. This helix temperature has been compared with the measured temperature to predict the TCRs.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the director, CSIR-CEERI, Pilani, for allowing us to publish this work. The authors also express their deep sense of gratitude to Dr S.N. Joshi for his encouragement and moral support.