Wall shape optimization for a thermosyphon loop featuring corrugated pipes

In the present paper we address the problem of optimal wall-shape design of a single phase laminar thermosyphon loop. The model takes the buoyancy forces into account via the Boussinesq approximation. We focus our study on showing the effects of wall shape on the flow and on the temperature inside the thermosyphon. To this extend we determine the dependency of the flow rate and the increase in temperature, on the geometrical characteristics of the loop. The geometry considered is a set of axially symmetric corrugated pipes described by a set of parameters; namely the pipe inner radius, the period of the corrugation, the amplitude of the corrugation, and the ratio of expansion and contraction regions of a period of the pipe. The governing equations are solved using the Finite Element Method, in combination with an adaptive mesh refinement technique in order to capture the effects of wall shape. We characterize the effects of the amplitude and of the ratio of expansion and contraction. In particular we show that for a given fixed amplitude it is possible to find an optimal ratio of expansion and contraction that minimizes the temperature inside the thermosyphon. The results show that by adequately choosing the design parameters, the performance of the thermosyphon loop can be improved

Heat leak performance of SSC collider dipole magnets

The large number of superconducting dipoles in the SSC results in a stringent heat leak budget for each dipole. Ensuring that the dipoles meet this budget is vital to the successful operation or the collider. This work surveys heat leak measurements taken during 4 different magnet string tests. These tests involved both 40 mm and SO mm aperture dipoles. In these experiments the heat leak to the 80 K shield, 20 K shield and cold mass are measured. The results are compared to predictions from a computational thermal model of the dipole cryostat. Discrepancies are seen between the predicted and measured values. Possible explanations for these discrepancies are given

Sorption-based vibration-free cooler for the METIS instrument on E-ELT

METIS is the 'Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph' for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) that will cover the thermal/mid-infrared wavelength range from 3 - 14 micron, and requires cryogenic cooling of detectors and optics. A vibration-free cooling technology for this instrument based on sorption coolers is developed at the University of Twente in collaboration with Dutch Space. In the baseline design, the instrument has four temperature levels: N-band: detector at 8 K and optics at 25 K; L/M-band: detector at 40 K and optics at 70 K. The latter temperature level is established by a pumped-liquid nitrogen line. The cooling powers required at the lower three levels are 0.4 W, 1.1 W, and 1.4 W, respectively. We propose a vibration-free sorption-based cooler with three cascaded Joule-Thomson (JT) coolers of which the sorption compressors are all heat sunk at the 70 K platform. A helium-operated cooler is used to obtain the 8 K level with a cooling power of 0.4 W. Here, three pre-cooling stages are used at 40 K, 25 K and 15 K. The latter two levels are provided by a hydrogen-based cooler, whereas the 40 K level is realized by a neon-based sorption cooler. In the paper, we present the preliminary design of this threestage cooler and we discuss the developments towards a demonstrator version of this METIS cooler

Measured control characteristics of the half-cell 40mm aperture magnet string

The data presented here were obtained in the course of operating a five 40mm aperture dipole string. The eighty eight meter long string of dipoles was assembled to test the various proposed operational scenarios of the SSCL collider. As reported earlier, there had been a short control and system (data procurement) checkout run performed on an abbreviated two dipole string. The problems that were then uncovered with the exception of the high 20K shield heat load, were corrected. There has been over 5000 hours of running time on the system, 3000 hours on the five magnet string alone, and to date, no major problems or incidents have occurred. The quench (superconducting to normal transition) performance of the magnet string was excellent, with the exception of four premature quenches that occurred during power supply commissioning. The operational parameters were all found to be manageable or equal to or greater than design. The operational heat loads were within the budget with the exception of the 20K circuit which was a factor of three too high. The relative internal voltages of the magnets have been higher than previously measured in the shorter string by a significant amount. There will be a discussion of concerns and problems plus their possible solution. 6 refs