A three cell conductively coupled thermionic fuel element (TFE) was assembled using a emitter trilayer, Ta intercell connectors and a collector trilayer. An electric heater supplied heat through radiation to the fuel clad. Current-voltage (IV) characteristics were obtained at emitter temperatures from 1650 K to 1800 K. A comparison with IV curves calculated with TECMDL indicates that the emitter bare work functions were around 5.1 eV. The agreement between calculated and observed voltages demonstrates that the 3 cells were indeed in series, thereby validating the feasibility of the conductively coupled multi-cell TFE, which is applicable to both nuclear and solar space power sources.
Tests of a conductively coupled multi-cell thermionic fuel element
Space Technology and Applications International Forum - 2001 ; 2001 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 552 , 1 ; 1119-1124
2001-02-02
6 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Tests of a Conductively Coupled Multi-Cell Thermionic Fuel Element
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