Heuristic method for evaluating coil performance

A heuristic methodology is described that was developed to evaluate the chemical efficiency of high-power chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) devices and its application to the specific evaluation of the U.S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory's RotoCOIL laser.;A heuristic equation that forms the basis of this methodology and describes the COIL energy flow energy losses, and power extraction using measured data, code results, and empirical relations is presented. Using this equation and bounding values for some of its terms, it is shown that for the RotoCOIL performance data the experimentally measured average O-2((1) Delta) yield of 0.40 is nearly 38% below that which would be consistent with the measured extraction power. By relating terms of the heuristic equation to performance of individual components of the COIL system, it is concluded that nearly 50% of the efficiency loss for the RotoCOIL laser derives from oxygen generator and delivery losses, whereas 15% is from nozzle inefficiencies and 11% from resonator losses.