Experimentally Observed Anomalies from Inclining a Vapor Compression Cycle

Vapor compression cycles would have many applications in the space industry if it was not for the uncertainty imposed by microgravity environments on two-phase systems. A first step towards Zero-G for technologies involving fluid dynamics can be terrestrial testing at different orientations. For vapor compression cycles, there is very little literature describing this type of research. This paper describes the anomalies encountered during the pursuit of a continuous operation of a R134a vapor compression cycle while positioning it at fixed angles around one axis between 0 and 360°. Experimental data was collected on a dedicated test stand across two configurations, one using a flat-plate evaporator and the other configuration using a tube-in-tube evaporator. Liquid flooding of the suction line was observed for both configurations but also continuous operation throughout a complete loop for certain cycle conditions. Charge migration towards the evaporator when it was put at the bottom was calculated based on differing measurements of the two mass flow meters in the liquid and suction line

Investigation of Two-phase Refrigerant Behavior Upon Cycle Startup for Compressor Protection in Microgravity Applications

Vapor compression cycles (VCCs) are a promising technology for refrigeration needs on future space craft due to their generally high cooling COP. However, due to microgravity there lies a risk of liquid flooding the compressor during start-up. Thus, to better prepare VCCs for microgravity applications, it is significant to understand the dependence of two-phase refrigerant on gravity during start-up. In this work, liquid flooding is evaluated at the start-up of a VCC and a possibility for passive compressor protection is considered. The experimental setup has two configurations. In the first, two-phase phenomena can be observed in a transparent tube and different tube insertions can be tested for their effectiveness as a liquid flooding obstruction. In the second configuration, liquid flooding from a commercial evaporator can be evaluated for different charge levels. The results show a clear effect of tube insertions on liquid flooding in a straight tube and find the felt tube insertion to be most effective at impeding flow. The evaporator test results also present a strong correlation of liquid flooding parameters with the charge level and show only a small dependence on the orientation of the evaporator

Characterizing Steady State Compressor Performance by Using Transient Test Data

Compressor testing is an essential task to characterize compressor performance, but often requires significant time to be executed. This study suggests a method that could greatly reduce time needed for compressor testing by inferring steady state performance from transient data rather than waiting for true steady state conditions to be measured. The key finding is that the overall isentropic efficiency in transient operation is almost identical to its true steady state performance value after applying very simple data processing. The paper describes a simple data processing method that extracts steady-state performance from transient data. The proposed processing should not be understood as a general rule to all compressors, but as a positive result for this particular compressor and a first glimpse into the value of transient data for performance estimation

A Novel Fluorescent Imaging Agent for Diffuse Optical Tomography of the Breast: First Clinical Experience in Patients

Purpose: This is the first clinical evaluation of a novel fluorescent imaging agent (Omocianine) for breast cancer detection with diffuse optical tomography (DOT). Procedures: Eleven women suspected of breast cancer were imaged with DOT at multiple time points (up to 24 h) after receiving an intravenous injection of Omocianine (doses 0.01 to 0.1 mg/kg bodyweight). Breast MRI was obtained for comparison. Results: Histopathology showed invasive cancer in ten patients and fibroadenoma in one patient. With the lowest dose of Omocianine, two of three lesions were detected; with the second dose, three of three lesions were detected; with the two highest doses, none of five lesions were detected. Lesion location on DOT showed excellent agreement with MRI. Optimal lesion-tobackground signals were obtained after 8 h. No adverse events occurred. Conclusions: Lowest doses of Omocianine performed best in lesion detection; DOT using a lowdose fluorescent agent is feasible and safe for breast cancer visualization in patients

More Than 1,001 Problems with Protein Domain Databases: Transmembrane Regions, Signal Peptides and the Issue of Sequence Homology

Large-scale genome sequencing gained general importance for life science because functional annotation of otherwise experimentally uncharacterized sequences is made possible by the theory of biomolecular sequence homology. Historically, the paradigm of similarity of protein sequences implying common structure, function and ancestry was generalized based on studies of globular domains. Having the same fold imposes strict conditions over the packing in the hydrophobic core requiring similarity of hydrophobic patterns. The implications of sequence similarity among non-globular protein segments have not been studied to the same extent; nevertheless, homology considerations are silently extended for them. This appears especially detrimental in the case of transmembrane helices (TMs) and signal peptides (SPs) where sequence similarity is necessarily a consequence of physical requirements rather than common ancestry. Thus, matching of SPs/TMs creates the illusion of matching hydrophobic cores. Therefore, inclusion of SPs/TMs into domain models can give rise to wrong annotations. More than 1001 domains among the 10,340 models of Pfam release 23 and 18 domains of SMART version 6 (out of 809) contain SP/TM regions. As expected, fragment-mode HMM searches generate promiscuous hits limited to solely the SP/TM part among clearly unrelated proteins. More worryingly, we show explicit examples that the scores of clearly false-positive hits, even in global-mode searches, can be elevated into the significance range just by matching the hydrophobic runs. In the PIR iProClass database v3.74 using conservative criteria, we find that at least between 2.1% and 13.6% of its annotated Pfam hits appear unjustified for a set of validated domain models. Thus, false-positive domain hits enforced by SP/TM regions can lead to dramatic annotation errors where the hit has nothing in common with the problematic domain model except the SP/TM region itself. We suggest a workflow of flagging problematic hits arising from SP/TM-containing models for critical reconsideration by annotation users

Vapor Compression Refrigeration in Microgravity

As space exploration continues to accelerate, various cooling applications follow suit. Refrigeration and freezing of biological samples, astronaut food as well as electronics cooling and air-conditioning are necessary and demand increased capacity. In the past, these demands have been met by thermoelectric cooling or cryogenic cycles, which are easily adapted to a microgravity environment but have a relatively low efficiency in the refrigeration and freezing temperature range. A number of studies have investigated the development of higher efficiency vapor compression cycles for spacecraft, which would have the benefit of a smaller mass penalty due to the reduced power consumption. Despite notable research efforts during the 1990s, the number of vapor compression coolers that have operated in microgravity until today is small and their performance was insufficient to provide confidence into the technology for microgravity applications. Related experimental research has decreased since the 2000s. For this dissertation, all vapor compression cycles (VCC) that have operated in microgravity according to the open literature were reviewed with their applications, compressor types and reported issues. Suggested design tools were summarized with a focus on gravity independence criteria for two-phase flow. For the most effective increase of the technology readiness level, simple but systematic experiments regarding the stability of VCCs against orientation and gravity changes were prioritized in this dissertation. An important goal of the research was the continuous operation and start-up of vapor compression cycles on parabolic flights, experiments that have not been reported in the open literature. Two separate test stands were built and flown on four parabolic flights, totaling 122 parabolas for each experiment. The parabolic flight experiments were prepared with extensive ground-based testing. Multiple anomalies were encountered during the pursuit of continuous vapor compression cycle operation through a rotation of 360 degrees, including liquid flooding of the compressor. Systematic inclination testing was conducted with two different cycle configurations and a wide range of operating conditions. A strong correlation was found between the relative stability of the heat source heat transfer rate and the refrigerant mass flux for an inclination procedure with angle changes once every 2 minutes. The parabolic flights exposed the test stand to quickly alternating hyper and microgravity. The evaporation temperature reacted to the different gravity levels with fluctuations that stretched on average 2.2 K from the maximum to minimum temperature measured during one set of parabolas. Changes of the evaporator inlet flow regime as a function of gravity were observed visually and the low-side pressure and mass flow rate sometimes oscillated in microgravity. The cycle responses induced by ground-based inclination testing were typically stronger than changes caused by the parabolic flight maneuvers for relatively low mass flow rates. Overall, the parabolic flight maneuvers were not detrimental to the cycle operation. The second test stand was dedicated to liquid flooding observations at cycle start-up. Different flow regimes were observed in microgravity during testing with a transparent evaporator but the absence of gravity did not significantly alter the general time-based flooding quantifiers. Design recommendations are drawn from the research where possible and summarized at the end of the dissertation. Selected data, code, pictures and videos were released together with this dissertation (Brendel, 2021)

Matching Testing Possibilities and Needed Experiments for Successful Vapor Compression Cycles in Microgravity

The literature shows five decades of interest in vapor compression cooling for spacecraft, while only very few conclusions can be drawn because of either non-systematic approaches or sparsely documented experiments. In contrast, the demand for high COP refrigerators and freezers has increased with the emerging plans of long duration manned space travel. Research is needed exploiting all available testing approaches to investigate two-phase cycles in microgravity environments. This paper presents relevant testing possibilities with their characteristics and outlines open questions regarding vapor compression cycles in space. Beneficial experiments are derived from open questions and matched with available testing methods to prescribe a path towards reliable and efficient refrigeration systems in microgravity