Characterisation and optimisation of flexible transfer lines for liquid helium. Part I: Experimental results

The transfer of liquid helium (LHe) into mobile dewars or transport vessels is a common and unavoidable process at LHe decant stations. During this transfer reasonable amounts of LHe evaporate due to heat leak and pressure drop. Thus generated helium gas needs to be collected and reliquefied which requires a huge amount of electrical energy. Therefore, the design of transfer lines used at LHe decant stations has been optimised to establish a LHe transfer with minor evaporation losses which increases the overall efficiency and capacity of LHe decant stations. This paper presents the experimental results achieved during the thermohydraulic optimisation of a flexible LHe transfer line. An extensive measurement campaign with a set of dedicated transfer lines equipped with pressure and temperature sensors led to unique experimental data of this specific transfer process. The experimental results cover the heat leak, the pressure drop, the transfer rate, the outlet quality, and the cool-down and warm-up behaviour of the examined transfer lines. Based on the obtained results the design of the considered flexible transfer line has been optimised, featuring reduced heat leak and pressure drop.     

The cryogenic system for ITER CC superconducting conductor test facility

This paper describes the cryogenic system of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Correction Coils (CC) test facility, which consists of a 500 W/4.5 K helium refrigerator, a 50 kA superconducting transformer cryostat (STC) and a background field magnet cryostat (BFMC). The 500 W/4.5 K helium refrigerator synchronously produces both the liquid helium (LHe) and supercritical helium (SHe). The background field magnet and the primary coil of the superconducting transformer (PCST) are cooled down by immersing into 4.2 K LHe. The secondary Cable-In-Conduit Conductor (CICC) coil of the superconducting transformer (SCST), superconducting joints and the testing sample of ITER CC are cooled down by forced-flow supercritical helium. During the commissioning experiment, all the superconducting coils were successfully translated into superconducting state. The background field magnet was fully cooled by immersing it into 4.2 K LHe and generated a maximal background magnetic field of 6.96 T; the temperature of transformer coils and current leads was reduced to 4.3 K; the inlet temperature of SHe loop was 5.6 K, which can meet the cooling requirements of CIC-Conductor and joint boxes. It is noted that a novel heat cut-off device for High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) binary current leads was introduced to reduce the heat losses of transformer cryostat.     

Design analysis of a solid nitrogen cooled “permanent” high-temperature superconducting magnet system

Potential performance advantages of a solid nitrogen cooled “permanent” high-temperature superconducting (SN2/HTS) magnet system over a liquid helium cooled low-temperature superconducting (LHe/LTS) system are explored. The SN2/HTS system design includes a second solid heat capacitor that cools a radiation shield. Recooling of the heat capacitors is performed with a demountable cryocooler. The SN2/HTS system offers both enhanced stability and improved portability over a LHe/LTS system.Design codes are constructed to compare the SN2/HTS system design with a LHe/LTS design for a general permanent superconducting magnet system employing a room temperature bore. The codes predict the system volume and mass that should be expected for a given set of design requirements, i.e. field strength and bore size, and a given set of conductor properties. The results indicate that present HTS conductor critical current and index are not yet sufficient for producing SN2/HTS systems of a size that is comparable with that expected for a LHe/LTS system; however, the conductor properties of Bi2223/Ag have been consistently improving, and new HTS conductors are expected to be developed in the near future. The codes are used to determine the minimum Bi2223/Ag conductor performance required for a SN2/HTS system to be competitive with a LHe/LTS system.     

Economical helium bath cryopump: design and testing

A small UHV helium bath cryopump with low cryoliquid consumption has been designed, manufactured and tested. The cryopump is designed to keep UHV in electron optical devices without generation of disturbing electromagnetic fields or vibrations. The outer volume of its shell is 15 l, the filling volumes of liquid helium (LHe) and liquid nitrogen (LN₂) are 3.0 l and 3.4 l, respectively. Operating times between cryoliquid fillings are 35 days for LHe and 6 days for LN₂. A pump speed of 25 l/s was measured for the He gas. A lowest pressure of 1.5×10⁻⁷ Pa was achieved in a test chamber and the pumping tests indicated that an even lower pressure would be achieved in a well-degassed chamber. Good agreement between the calculated and measured values both of the pump speed and the cryoliquid evaporation has been found. The system of chevron-type baffles was designed and checked by Monte Carlo simulations of molecular flow and radiative heat transfer. The pump prototype was successfully used to evacuate an operating cryostat of a NMR spectrometer.     

失超引起的气泡对超导体绝缘特性的影响

综述了超导设备在失超情况下液氦中气泡的形成,以及气泡对超导设备的绝缘特性的影响,分析了在均匀和不均匀电场中热传导率、压强及电极表面状况对击穿特性的影响,并探讨了提高失超情况下液氦击穿电压的方法.     

A self-circulation helium liquefaction system with five 4 K G-M cryocoolers

A self-circulation helium liquefaction system (SCHLS) with five 4 K G-M cryocoolers is developed to supply liquid helium (LHe) for SECRAL (a superconducting ECR ion source used in Lanzhou city, China). LHe is vaporized in SECRAL and warmed up to room temperature. SCHLS will re-liquefy the helium gas at a rate of 83.2 L/day under normal atmosphere pressure. With SCHLS, SECRAL system can run online without any interruption of refilling LHe.     

Bubble growth constants for liquid hydrogen and liquid helium

Bubble growth constants are calculated for LH₂ and LHe at various pressures and liquid superheats for spherically symmetric growth using Scrivens'solution. The constants are shown to be applicable to bubble growth at a heated wall during boiling of cryogenic liquids.     

Design and experimental investigation of a cryogenic system for environmental test applications

This paper is concerned with the design, development and performance testing of a cryogenic system for use in high cooling power instruments for ground-based environmental testing. The system provides a powerful tool for a combined environmental test that consists of high pressure and cryogenic temperatures. Typical cryogenic conditions are liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LO2), which are used in many fields. The cooling energy of liquid nitrogen (LN2) and liquid helium (LHe) is transferred to the specimen by a closed loop of helium cycle. In order to minimize the consumption of the LHe, the optimal design of heat recovery exchangers has been used in the system. The behavior of the system is discussed based on experimental data of temperature and pressure. The results show that the temperature range from room temperature to LN2 temperature can be achieved by using LN2, the pressurization process is stable and the high test pressure is maintained. Lower temperatures, below 77 K, can also be obtained with LHe cooling, the typical cooling time is 40 min from 90 K to 22 K. Stable temperatures of 22 K at the inlet of the specimen have been observed, and the system in this work can deliver to the load a cooling power of several hundred watts at a pressure of 0.58 MPa.     

Installation and commissioning of a cryogen distribution system for the TPS project

A cryogen distribution system was installed and commissioned to transfer liquid nitrogen (LN₂) and liquid helium (LHe) from storage dewars to superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities for the 3-GeV Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) project. The cryogen distribution system comprises one distribution valve box (DVB), four control valve boxes (CVB) and seven sections of multichannel transfer line (MCL). The DVB distributes the LHe and LN₂ to the CVB, and then to the SRF cavities through independent vacuum-jacketed transfer lines. The vaporized GHe and GN₂ from the cryomodules are collected via the MCL. The cryogen distribution system was installed and commissioned from October 2014 to the end of March 2015. This paper presents the installation, pre-commissioning and commissioning of the cryogen distribution system, and describes the heat load test. Thermal acoustic oscillation (TAO) was found in the GHe process line; this phenomenon and its solution are also presented and discussed.     

7.7 T超导磁体冷却液体理论与实际消耗量对比分析

以7.7 T超导磁体为载体,分析了其在采取液氮预冷、液氦浸泡的冷却方式时,冷却液体理论消耗量与实际消耗量的差别。结果表明预冷过程中液氮和液氦的实际消耗比理论计算值分别多140 L、48 L,主要与输液管道的保温效果和密封性、冷却液体焓变的利用率和满足实验的特别要求等因素有关。     

NBI低温冷凝泵液氦杜瓦的热力分析与工程设计

降低中性束注入器低温冷凝泵的LHe消耗率,是进行低温冷凝泵设计时应考虑的核心问题之一。通过对NBI低温冷凝泵的LHe杜瓦进行热力分析,确定了影响杜瓦内LHe蒸发率的关键参数。探讨了降低LHe蒸发率的措施,依此确定了在工程设计中为达到减小LHe蒸发率、提高泵运行经济性可采用的结构形式。     

液氮冷却技术在超导磁体中的应用

介绍了核磁共振成像设备中超导磁体在液氦输送前，磁体在液氮中进行充分预冷以及液氮的排出方法。掌握正确的预冷方法对减少第一次液氦输送预冷量有重要的经济意义     

Concepts for a low-vibration and cryogen-free tabletop dilution refrigerator

The purpose of this article is to describe several concepts of how to cool a modern tabletop dilution refrigerator (DR) with a cryogen-free pulse tube cryocooler (PTC). Tabletop DRs have come more and more into the focus of scientists, recently, because they offer easy access to the mixing chamber mounting plate from all directions and because of their very short cooldown times. However, these milli-Kelvin coolers are precooled with LHe which makes their handling inconvenient and often expensive. In the paper it is explained how a cryocooler can be directly coupled to a DR unit making the use of LHe superfluous. Furthermore, concepts are discussed where a tabletop DR is cooled by a remote PTC; PTC and DR are mounted in separate vacuum containers which are connected by a stainless steel bellows tube. This kind of apparatus would offer an extremely low level of vibration at the mixing chamber mounting plate.     

Compact,ultra-low vibration,closed-cycle helium recycler for uninterrupted operation of MEG with SQUID magnetometers

A closed-cycle helium recycler was developed for continuous uninterrupted operation for magnetometer-based whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) systems. The recycler consists of a two stage 4 K pulse-tube cryocooler and is mounted on the roof of a magnetically shielded room (MSR). A flexible liquid helium (LHe) return line on the recycler is inserted into the fill port of the MEG system in the MSR through a slotted opening in the ceiling. The helium vapor is captured through a line that returns the gas to the top of the recycler assembly. A high-purity helium gas cylinder connected to the recycler assembly supplies the gas, which, after it is liquefied, increases the level of LHe in the MEG system during the start-up phase. No storage tank for evaporated helium gas nor a helium gas purifier is used. The recycler is capable of liquefying helium with a rate of ∼17 L/d after precooling the MEG system. It has provided a fully maintenance-free operation under computer control for 7 months without refill of helium. Although the recycler is used for single-orientation operation at this initial testing site, it is designed to operate at ±20° orientations, allowing the MEG system to be tilted for supine and reclining positions. Vibration of the recycler is dampened to an ultra-low level by using several vibration isolation methods, which enables uninterrupted operation during MEG measurements. Recyclers similar to this system may be quite useful even for MEG systems with 100% magnetometers.     

Development of low-noise high value chromium silicide resistors for cryogenic detector applications

Extremely high sensitivity detectors, such as silicon bolometers are required in many NASA missions for detection of photons from the X-ray to the far infrared regions. Typically, these detectors are cooled to well below the liquid helium (LHe) temperature of 4.2 K to achieve the maximum detection performance. As photodetectors, they are generally operated with a load resistor and a pre-set bias voltage, which is coupled to the input gate of a source-follower field effect transistor (FET) circuit. It is imperative that the detector system signal-to-noise performance be limited by the noise of the detector and not by the noise of the external components. The load resistor value is selected to optimize the detector performance. These two criteria tend to be contradictory in that these detectors require load resistors in the hundreds of megaohms, which leads to a higher Johnson noise. Additionally, the physical size of the resistor must be small for device integration as required by such missions as the NASA High Resolution Airborne Wide-Band Camera instrument and the Submillimeter High-Angular Resolution Camera for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, both of which employ 384 detectors and resistors. We have designed, fabricated and characterized thin film resistors using a CrSi/TiW/Al metal system on optical quality quartz substrates. The resistor values range from 75 MΩ to over 650 MΩ and are Johnson noise limited to below LHe temperatures. The resistor film is sputtered with a sheet resistance ranging from 300 to 1600 Ω/□ and the processing sequence developed for these devices allows for chemically fine-tuning the sheet resistance in situ. The wafer fabrication process was of sufficiently high yield (>80%) providing clusters of good resistors for integrated multiple detector channels, a very important feature in the assembly of these two instruments.     

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.     

Verlust der Heliumdichtheit

Loss of Helium tightness caused by damage of surface passivation of Aluminium In the context of the fusion experiment Wendelstein 7‐X a number of superconducting coils lost helium tightness at about 200 Kelvin during cooling to LHe temperature. The evaluation of the strain in the area of aluminum welds showed that due to the different thermal expansion coefficients of the superconductor and the high voltage isolation, the passive layer can tear from the superconductor. Studies in which the superconductor was stretched at a temperature of 200 Kelvin in a test chamber, confirmed that damage of both sides of the passive layer of the superconductor cause loss of helium tightness. The tests also showed that the helium leaks located with the UST method healed after contact with oxygen and moisture, so that the superconductor regained helium tightness from 10^?6 to 10^?11 mbar × l/s.     

Epoxy encapsulation of the Cernox™ SD thermometer for measuring the temperature of surfaces in liquid helium

We describe a procedure to pot a Cernox™ thermometer with the SD package in Stycast epoxy. The potting adapts the thermometer for measuring the temperature of a surface immersed in liquid helium (LHe) and other cryogens. The technique thermally insulates the sensor chip from the cryogen while preserving the surface mounting capability of the SD package. The potting introduced <1% shift in the resistance, <0.5% shift in the calibration at 4.2 K and 77 K, and provided repeatable measurements during thermal cycles between room temperature and 4.2 K.     

Development of mechanical cryocoolers for the cooling system of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer onboard Astro-H

Astro-H is the Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite planned for launch in 2014. The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard Astro-H, is a high energy resolution spectrometer utilizing an X-ray micro-calorimeter array, which is operated at 50 mK by the ADR with the 30-L superfluid liquid helium (LHe). The mechanical cryocoolers, 4 K-class Joule Thomson (JT) cooler and 20 K-class double-staged Stirling (2ST) cooler are key components to achieve a LHe lifetime for over 3 years in orbit (5 years as a goal). Based on the existing cryocoolers onboard Akari (2006) and JEM/SMILES (2009), modifications for higher cooling power and reliability had been investigated. In the present development phase, the Engineering Models (EMs) of these upgraded cryocoolers are fabricated to carry out verification tests for cooling performance, mechanical performance and lifetime. Nominal cooling power of 200 mW at 20 K for the 2ST cooler and 40 mW at 4.5 K for the JT cooler were demonstrated with temperature and power margin. Mechanical performance test for the 2ST cooler units proves tolerability for pyro shock and vibration environment of the Astro-H criteria. Continuous running of the 4 K-class JT cooler combined with the 2ST precooler for lifetime test has achieved over 5000 h without any degradation of cooling performance.