Experimental test of a supercritical helium heat exchanger dedicated to EUROTRANS 150 kW CW power coupler

The coaxial power coupler needed for beta = 0.65 superconducting RF cavities used in the high energy section of the EUROTRANS driver should transmit 150 kW (CW operation) RF power to the proton beam. The estimated RF losses on the power coupler outer conductor in standing wave mode operation are 46 W. To remove these heat loads, a full scale copper coil heat exchanger brazed around the outer conductor was designed and tested using supercritical helium at T = 6 K as a coolant. Our main objective was to minimise the heat loads to cold extremity of SRF cavity maintained at 2 K or 4.2 K. A dedicated test facility named SUPERCRYLOOP was developed and successfully operated in order to measure the performance of the cold heat exchanger. The test cell used reproduces the realistic thermal boundary conditions of the power coupler mounted on the cavity in the cryomodule. After a short introduction, a brief discussion about the problem of power coupler cooling systems in different machines is made. After that, we describe the experimental set-up and test apparatus. Then, a heat exchanger thermal model will be developed with FEM code COSMOS/M to estimate the different heat transfer coefficients by comparison between numerical simulation results and experimental data in order to validate the design. Finally, thermo-hydraulic behavior of supercritical helium has been investigated as function of different parameters (inlet pressure, flow rate, heat loads).     

Development of a stainless steel check valve for cryogenic applications

This paper describes the development of a check valve for use in a sorption compressor that will drive a 10 mW 4.5 K Joule-Thomson cryocooler. For the check valve extremely low backflow rates are tolerable at an operating temperature of the valve of 50 K. To fulfill these requirements, the sealing mechanism of the valve is based on a full metal to metal contact. In order to obtain sufficiently low leak rates, both parts were machined to a surface flatness in the order of 100 nm. In addition, the closing plate (boss) of the valve deforms (bends) slightly under pressure, forming itself to the opposite valve seat and thus reducing the gap between these parts. The measured leak flow at 50 K was 1.6 μg/s helium @ 16 bar pressure difference, which is well below the aim of 3 μg/s.The valve was subjected to an accelerated lifetime test of 300,000 cycles. It was observed that the leak flow through the valve during this test steadily decreased to a level of 0.15 μg/s after 100,000 cycles.     

Elevated-pressure mixed-coolants Joule-Thomson cryocooling

This paper explores the potential of mixed coolants at elevated pressures for Joule-Thomson cryocooling. A numerical model of a Joule-Thomson cryocooler is developed that is capable of simulating operation with mixtures of up to 9 components consisting of hydrocarbons, non-flammable halogenated refrigerants, and inert gases. The numerical model is integrated with a genetic optimization algorithm, which has a high capability for convergence in an environment of discontinuities, constraints and local optima. The genetic optimization algorithm is used to select the optimal mixture compositions that separately maximizes following two objective functions at each elevated pressure for 80, 90 and 95 K cryocooling: the molar specific cooling capacity (the highest attainable is 3200 J/mol) and the produced cooling capacity per thermal conductance which is a measure of the compactness of the recuperator. The optimized cooling capacity for a non-flammable halogenated refrigerant mixture is smaller than for a hydrocarbon mixture; however, the cooling capacity of the two types of mixtures approach one another as pressure becomes higher. The coefficient of performance, the required heat transfer area and the effect of the number of components in the mixture is investigated as a function of the pressure. It is shown that mixtures with more components provide a higher cooling capacity but require larger recuperative heat exchangers. Optimized mixtures for 90 K cryocooling have similar cooling capacity as those for 80 K. Optimized compactness for 80 K is about 50% higher than can be achieved by pure nitrogen. For 90 K, no mixture provides a more compact recuperator than can be achieved using pure argon. The results are discussed in the context of potential applications for closed and open cycle cryocoolers.     

Thermo-hydraulic analysis of the gradual cool-down to 80 K of the ITER toroidal field coil

A time-dependent thermo-hydraulic simulation for an ITER toroidal field (TF) coil gradual cool-down to 80 K has been performed using a new FORTRAN code. The code is based on a 1D helium flow and 1D multi-region solid heat conduction model. The whole TF coil is simulated taking into account thermal conduction between winding pack and case, which are cooled down separately. To limit coil mechanical stresses and coolant pressure drop in the cooling channels, an improved cool-down mode has been developed based on the analysis. Typical and gradual cool-down temperature distributions of TF coil and case are presented. The results indicate that gradual cool-down to 80 K can be achieved in 3 weeks.     

A high frequency cascade thermoacoustic engine

A miniature cascade thermoacoustic engine, which consisted of one standing-wave stage and one traveling-wave stage in series, was built and tested, which length was about 1.2 m, operating at 470 Hz using helium as working gas. The cascade modeling, the simulation and the primary experimental results are described in this paper. Four different configurations of the miniature cascade thermoacoustic engines had been designed and compared. According to the analysis, the diameter ratio of stages was designed to extend the traveling-wave region, which optimized value was about 1.69. The peak-to-peak value of the acoustic pressure was predicted to arrive to 3 bar at the 3 MPa mean pressure of helium when 300 W heating power was the input. The features of the engine were predicted delivering 68 W acoustic power with a thermal efficiency of up to 22.74% (the ratio of acoustic power to heater power). Due to careful designing, the engine self-excited the oscillation smoothly from the first experiment. An onset temperature gradient of about 4.5 K/mm was achieved, and the peak-to-peak acoustic pressure was 48 KPa at the 2 MPa mean pressure when 200 W heating power was the input. The design computation and experimental results showed a rather good agreement between the measured and calculated pressure phasor and temperatures distributions in the cascade thermoaoustic engine.     

High frequency two-stage pulse tube cryocooler with base temperature below 20 K

High frequency (30-50 Hz) multi-stage pulse tube coolers that are capable of reaching temperatures close to 20 K or even lower are a subject of recent research and development activities. This paper reports on the design and test of a two-stage pulse tube cooler which is driven by a linear compressor with nominal input power of 200 W at an operating frequency of 30-45 Hz. A parallel configuration of the two pulse tubes is used with the warm ends of the pulse tubes located at ambient temperature. For both stages, the regenerator matrix consists of a stack of stainless steel screen. At an operating frequency of 35 Hz and with the first stage at 73 K a lowest stationary temperature of 19.6 K has been achieved at the second stage. The effects of input power, frequency, average pressure, and cold head orientation on the cooling performance are also reported. An even lower no-load temperature can be expected from the use of lead or other regenerator materials of high heat capacity in the second stage.     

Cryogenic system design of the next generation infrared space telescope SPICA

The Japanese infrared space telescope SPICA mission, following the successful Akari mission, has been studied at the concept design phase in international collaboration with ESA under the framework of the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. The SPICA spacecraft is to be launched in 2018 and transferred into a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 to obtain a stable thermal environment where the IR space telescope’s large mirror of 3 m-class in diameter can be cooled to <5.5 K with mechanical coolers and effective radiative cooling with no use of stored cryogen. The SPICA’s large and cold telescope is expected to provide unprecedented scientific observation optimized for mid-IR and far-IR astronomy with ultra-high sensitivity and excellent spatial resolution during a nominal mission life of 3 years (goal 5 years). Thermal and structural analyses show that the obtained design of the SPICA cryogenic system satisfies the mission requirement. Mechanical coolers for the 4.5 K stage and the 1.7 K stage, which have been continuously developed, have a sufficient cooling capacity with low power consumption to lift the heat loads from instruments and parasitic heat loads. As a result, it is concluded that the concept design of the SPICA cryogenic system is confirmed for the initial cooling mode after launch and the nominal operation mode.     

Experimental investigation and optimization of small-scale helium liquefaction with multi-cryocoolers

Small-scale helium liquefiers using regenerative cryocoolers with cooling power up to 1.5 W at 4.2 K could be used to re-liquefy evaporated helium gas of small- and medium-sized cryogenic devices such as MEG and PPMS. A serial–parallel-path helium liquefier with a liquefaction rate of 83 Litres per day (L/d) using five 4 K G-M cryocoolers is developed, and has been applied to the Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center (WHMFC) in China. Different from parallel-path helium liquefier, the helium gas is effectively, stepwise precooled by heat exchangers on multi-cold flanges, and thus the additional purifier and precooling coil heat exchangers on the thinner part of the cold head cylinder containing the 2nd stage displacer could be removed to simplify the construction. Through theoretical calculation and conclusive analysis, an optimum configuration is proposed and makes a reference to the design of serial–parallel-path helium liquefier with multi-cryocoolers.     

Cryogenic design and operation of liquid helium in an electron bubble chamber towards low energy solar neutrino detectors

We are developing a new cryogenic neutrino detector: electron bubble chamber, using liquid helium as the detecting medium, for the detection of low energy p-p reaction neutrinos (<420 keV), from the Sun. The program focuses in particular on the interactions of neutrinos scattering off atomic electrons in the detecting medium of liquid helium, resulting in recoil electrons which can be measured. We designed and constructed a small test chamber with 1.5 L active volume to start the detector R&D, and performed experimental proofs of the operation principle. The test chamber is a stainless steel cylinder equipped with five optical windows and ten high voltage cables. To shield the liquid helium chamber against the external heat loads, the chamber is made of double-walled jacket cooled by a pumped helium bath and is built into a LN₂/LHe cryostat, equipped with 80 K and 4 K radiation shields. A needle valve for vapor helium cooling was used to provide a 1.7-4.5 K low temperature environments. The cryogenic test chamber has been successfully operated to test the performance of Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) in He and He + H₂ at temperatures in the range of 3-293 K. This paper will give an introduction on the cryogenic solar neutrino detector using electron bubbles in liquid helium, then present the cryogenic design and operation of liquid helium in the small test chamber. The general principles of a full-scale electron bubble detector for the detection of low energy solar neutrinos are also proposed.     

A single-stage pulse tube cooler reached 12.6 K

A single-stage G-M type pulse tube cooler (PTC) was designed and tested to explore the lowest attainable refrigeration temperature and to further improve the cooling performance in the temperature range of 15-40 K. The magnetic material Er₃Ni was used as part of the regenerative material besides the phosphor-bronze and the lead so as to improve the efficiency of the regenerator. With an input power of 6 kW, a lowest no-load refrigeration temperature of 12.6 K was obtained, which is a new record for the single-stage PTC. The cooling capacity at 15-40 K was also significantly improved, which may extend the application of the single-stage PTC for the cooling of superconductors and cryopumps.     

Development of mechanical cryocoolers for Astro-H/SXS

The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) is a high-resolution spectrometer with an X-ray micro-calorimeter array onboard the Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite Astro-H, planned for launch in 2013. The micro-calorimeter is operated at cryogenic temperature of 50 mK provided by the Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR) with a heat sink of 1.3 K liquid helium stored in the SXS Dewar. To extend the liquid helium lifetime to over 3 years in orbit, two types of mechanical cryocoolers are installed: 20 K-class double-staged Stirling (2ST) coolers and a 1 K-class Joule-Thomson (JT) cooler. Improvement of mechanical cryocoolers has been investigated and verified for higher reliability and cooling performance. The engineering model (EM) of upgraded mechanical cryocoolers was fabricated for a long lifetime test. The required cooling power of 200 mW at 20 K for the 2ST cooler and 10 mW at 1.7 K for the JT cooler are achieved by EM test.     

Regenerator performance improvement of a single-stage pulse tube cooler reached 11.1 K

In order to improve the cooling performance of pulse tube cooler (PTC) at 20-40 K, hybrid regenerators are often employed. In this paper a three-layer regenerator, which consists of woven wire screen, lead sphere and Er₃Ni is optimized to enhance the cooling performance and explore the lowest attainable refrigeration temperature for a single-stage PTC. The efforts focus on the temperature range of 80-300 K, where woven wire screens are used. Theoretical and experimental studies are carried out to study the metal material and the mesh size effect of woven wire screens on the performance of the single-stage G-M type PTC. A lowest no-load refrigeration temperature of 11.1 K was obtained with an input power of 6 kW. The PTC can supply 17.8 W at 20 K and 39.4 W at 30 K, respectively.     

A small helium-3 pulse-tube refrigerator

A new three-stage pulse-tube refrigerator (PTR) is developed by scaling down a previous PTR by 50%. The new system is small in size and weight, capable of operating using little input power, and uses a small amount of working gas and regenerator material. In addition to that the system is flexible and convenient for modifications. The volume of the low-temperature part of the new PTR (pulse tubes + regenerator) is as small as 0.28 l. With ³He as a working fluid a no-load temperature of 1.73 K is reached and a cooling power of 124 mW at 4.2 K is realized.     

4KG-M制冷机做冷源的自循环氦液化装置研制

采用5台1.5W/4.2KG-M制冷机(日本住友RDK415D)并联研制出了1台方便实验室使用的小型氦液化装置,并为其建立了性能测量实验台。实验结果表明:液氦温度为4.17K(饱和压力为96kPa)时,氦液化率为74L/d;液氦温度为4.42K(饱和压力为121kPa)时,液化率为116L/d,经拟合,在4.2K(饱和压力为100kPa)时液化率为83L/d,并且通过100小时以上的连续运行,说明该氦液化装置自循环性能良好。通过实验发现:实测氦液化率远大于制冷机冷头制冷量对应的计算氦液化率。分析认为:G-M制冷机气缸壁对氦气预冷是提高实际氦液化率的主要因素。     

Advances in a 300 Hz thermoacoustic cooler system working within liquid nitrogen temperature range

With the combined advantages of high reliability, compact size and low electromagnetic interference, a high frequency operating thermoacoustic cooler system, i.e. a pulse tube cooler driven by a thermoacoustic heat engine, is quite promising for space applications. This article introduced a high frequency standing-wave thermoacoustic heat engine-driven pulse tube cooler system working around 300 Hz with axial length being 1.2 m. To improve the thermal efficiency of such system, an optimization has been carried out, both analytically and experimentally, by observing the influence of the dimensions of the stack, the hot buffer length and the acoustic pressure amplifier tube length. So far, a no-load temperature of 68.3 K has been obtained with 4.0 MPa helium and 750 W heating power. With 500 W heating power, a no-load temperature of 76.9 K and 0.2 W cooling power at 80 K have been achieved. Compared with former reports, the performance has been improved.     

High-power Stirling-type pulse tube cooler working below 30 K

High-power Stirling-type pulse tube coolers (PTCs) are promising candidates for cooling HTS devices and gas liquefaction or separation applications. Nevertheless, till now most high-power Stirling-type PTCs are not able to reach a refrigeration temperature below 35 K. Here, a high-power two-stage Stirling-type PTC was designed, manufactured and experimentally investigated. In order to realize a convenient coupling with a thermal load, U-shape configuration is adopted in both stages, which makes it more challenging to distribute the gas flow and reduce dead volume in the cold end heat exchanger. By optimizing operating conditions, flow straightener, and double-inlet opening, the cooler has reached no-load refrigeration temperatures of 29.6 K and 27.1 K at 55 Hz and 40 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, the cooler is able to provide cooling powers of 50 W at 45.6 K and 100 W at 59.3 K when input pV powers are 4.77 kW and 4.59 kW, respectively.     

A vibration free cryostat using pulse tube cryocooler

This paper introduces a new vibration free cryostat cooled by liquid helium and a 4 K pulse tube cryocooler. The cryogenic device mounts on the sample cooling station which is cooled by liquid helium. The boil off helium is recondensed by the pulse tube cryocooler, thus the cryostat maintains zero boil off. There is no mechanical contact between the cryogenic part of the cryocooler and the sample cooling station. A bellows is used to isolate the vibration which could transfer from the cryocooler flange to the cryostat flange at the room temperature. Any vibrations generated by the operation of the cryocooler are almost entirely isolated from the cryogenic device. The cryostat provides a cooling capacity of 0.65 W at 4.21 K on the sample cooling station while maintaining a vapor pressure of 102 kPa. The sample cooling station has a very stable temperature with oscillations of less than ±3 mK during all the operations. A cryogenic microwave oscillator has been successfully cooled and operated with the cryostat.     

Thermodynamic design of methane liquefaction system based on reversed-Brayton cycle

A thermodynamic design is performed for reversed-Brayton refrigeration cycle to liquefy methane separated from landfill gas (LFG) in distributed scale. Objective of the design is to find the most efficient operating conditions for a skid-mount type of liquefaction system that is capable of LNG production at 160 l/h. Special attention is paid on liquefying counterflow heat exchanger, because the temperature difference between cold refrigerant and methane is smallest at the middle of heat exchanger, which seriously limits the overall thermodynamic performance of the liquefaction system. Nitrogen is selected as refrigerant, as it is superior to helium in thermodynamic efficiency. In order to consider specifically the size effect of heat exchangers, the performance of plate-fin heat exchangers is estimated with rigorous numerical calculations by incorporating a commercial code for properties of methane and the refrigerant. Optimal conditions in operating pressure and heat exchanger size are presented and discussed for prototype construction under a governmental project in Korea.     

A closed cycle He-He dilution refrigerator insensitive to gravity

The cooling power and the lifetime of an open cycle dilution refrigerator as developed for the Planck mission (100 nW at 100 mK during 30 months) are limited by the quantity of the helium isotopes carried on the satellite at launch, because the helium mixture obtained after the dilution process is rejected into space. Future space missions require to increase the cooling power and lifetime significantly (1 μW at 50 mK during 5 years).Therefore we are extending the open cycle dilution refrigerator with a helium isotope separator operating at 1 K to close the cycle. A first prototype to demonstrate the principle of the closed cycle dilution refrigerator has been tested and a cooling power of 1 μW at temperatures below 60 mK has been obtained. We present the apparatus and the experimental results and give some elements for its integration in a complete cooling chain. The advantages (continuous operation, absence of magnetic field, less weight) of a closed cycle dilution refrigerator with respect to an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator are also discussed.     

Development of double-stage ADR for future space missions

We report a development of a portable dewar with a double-stage ADR in it, and its cooling test results. The purpose of this system is to establish a cooling cycle of double-stage adiabatic demagnetization from 4.2 K to 50 mK, which is strongly desired for future space science missions. In our test dewar, two units of ADR are installed in parallel at the bottom of a liquid He tank. We used 600 g of GGG (Gadolinium Gallium Garnet) for the higher temperature stage (4 Tesla) and ∼90 g of CPA (Chromic Potassium Alum) for the lower temperature stage (3 Tesla). A passive gas-gap heat switch (PGGHS) is used between these two stages, while a mechanical heat switch between the He tank and the GGG stage. Using this system, 50 mK was achieved, and various kinds of cooling cycles with different operating temperatures and different sequences of magnetization were tested. We also evaluated the performance of the PGGHS, and interference of the magnetic field with each other during a stable temperature control.