Cryocooler Prognostic Health Management System

High performance sensors are playing an increasingly important role in all aspects of all critical DoD missions. There is a family of sensors that operate with improved sensitivities if cooled to very low (cryogenic) temperatures. For these sensors, a healthy and reliable mechanical refrigeration system (cryocooler) is required. The ability to accurately predict the “health” or remaining useful life of the cryocooler has significant benefits from the viewpoint of ensuring that mission critical functions can be carried out with a high probability of success. The paper provides an overview and approaches used for the development of a Cryocooler Prognostic Health Management System (CPHMS) capable of assessing the cryocooler “health” from the viewpoint of the level of performance degradation and/or the potential for near term failure. Additionally, it quantifies the reliable remaining useful life of the cryocooler. While the proposed system is focused on the specific application to linear drive cryocoolers, e...