System for delivering coolant to a laser system

摘要

A cooling system is provided for providing a coolant to a laser system at a substantially set temperature. The cooling system employs a stratified thermal energy storage (TES) device that is configured to distribute hot coolant provided at an inlet port over a cross-sectional area of the TES device to provide a substantially uniform, stratified flow of a hot coolant that flushes a cold coolant from the TES device at an outlet port. The distributed inflow of the hot coolant provides a uniform downward velocity flow of the hot coolant and the cold coolant and takes advantage of an unmixed condition of the hot coolant and the cold coolant.