High conductivity composite sleeves for large nickel hydrogen cells

Eagle-Picher is investigating the use of composites for Nickel Hydrogen battery packaging structures. This paper discusses the design and testing of 50-mil thick, 4.5" diameter K1100 composite thermal sleeves. The test article is commonly known as "center-mount", with a flange located at the center of the sleeve. The objective is to compare the thermal, structural, and mass characteristics of the K1100 composite sleeve with another flight-qualified material, 6061-T6 aluminum. The test results show that the K1100 sleeve is very well suited for this application, allowing the nickel-hydrogen test cell to run up to 5/spl deg/C cooler (dome-to-baseplate) during C/2 discharge in the thermal vacuum chamber. In addition, the K1100 had better structural properties and weighed one-third less than aluminum of the same thickness.