Thermal Issues Associated with the Lighting Systems, Electronics Racks, and Pre-Amplifier Modules in the National Ignition System

This report summarizes an investigation of the thermal issues related to the National Ignition Facility. The influence of heat sources such as lighting fixtures, electronics racks, and pre-amplifier modules (PAMs) on the operational performance of the laser guide beam tubes and optical alignment hardware in the NE laser bays were investigated with experiments and numerical models. In particular, empirical heat transfer data was used to establish representative and meaningful boundary conditions and also serve as bench marks for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. Numerical models, constructed with a commercial CFD code, were developed to investigate the extent of thermal plumes and radiation heat transfer from the heat sources. From these studies, several design modifications were recommended including reducing the size of all fluorescent lights in the NIF laser bays to single 32 W bulb fixtures, maintaining minimum separation distances between light fixtures/electronics racks and beam transport hardware, adding motion sensors in areas of the laser bay to control light fixture operation during maintenance procedures, properly cooling all electronics racks with air-water heat exchangers with heat losses greater than 25 W/rack to the M1 laser bay, ensuring that the electronics racks are not overcooked and thus maintain their surface temperatures to within a few degrees centigrade of the mean air temperature, and insulating the electronic bays and optical support structures on the PAMs