Investigation of cryogenic wicking performance within porous structures

Abstract

Phase-separation is of great importance in spacecraft tanks. The propulsion engines of spacecrafts require a single-phase propellant supply, which is a challenge using cryogenic liquids. In order to extend the knowledge of the capillary transport of cryogenic liquid in porous materials, we investigated wicking of liquid nitrogen at quasi-isothermal conditions in porous structures. The experiments were performed at saturation temperature in a one species system using the weight measurement technique. The setup configurations enabled to perform experiments with a sample overheat below 1 K. Porosity and permeability were calculated from the liquid nitrogen wicking experiments. The dimensionless representation of the cryogenic wicking experiments shows a good agreement compared to the wicking experiments with storable liquid. It leads to the statement that the combination of macroscopic parameters were obtained correctly for each experiment.