Experimental investigation of the thermal performance of the thermosyphon cooling system with rotating

Abstract

Rotating machine applications with superconductors attract much interest in the industry. For maintaining the operating temperature of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) field poles, a sophisticated cooling system is required. A thermosyphon (TS) is one of the ways for this purpose. The cryo-mechanical system composition is relatively simple, lightweight, and based on natural convection therefore not using any mechanical pump. It can supply the refrigerant from the static condenser part to the rotating evaporator part by using a successful rotary joint. The operating temperature of the TS cooling system depends on the refrigerant. Considering the current HTS materials, the suitable refrigerant is neon, hydrogen. Nitrogen which provides a higher operating temperature than neon and hydrogen is employed for future development. In this work, we focused on and investigated the heat transfer capacity of TS using nitrogen as the refrigerant. The heat transfer performance with rotating was also studied. As a result of the experiment, the TS cooling system could maintain the evaporator temperature by rotating. Moreover, it could transfer the 90 W heat load with rotating.