Warm-up calorimetry of Dewar-Detector Assemblies

Abstract

Boil-off isothermal calorimetry of Dewar-Detector Assemblies (DDA) is a routine part of their Acceptance Testing Procedure. In this approach, the cryogenic liquid coolant (typically LN2) is allowed to naturally boil-off from the Dewar well to the atmosphere through a mass flow meter; the parasitic heat load is then evaluated as the product of the latent heat of vaporization and the "last drop" boil-off rate.An inherent major limitation of this technique is that it may be performed only at the fixed boiling temperature of the chosen liquid coolant. A further drawback is related to the explosive nature of "last drop" boiling, manifesting itself as an uneven flow rate. This especially holds true for advanced High Operational Temperature Dewar-Detector Assemblies, typically featuring short cold fingers and working at 150 K and above.In this work, we adapt the well-known technique of dual-slope calorimetry and show how accurate heat load evaluation may be performed by comparing the slopes of the warm-up thermal transients under different trial added heat loads. Because of the simplicity, accuracy and ability to perform calorimetry literally at any temperature of interest, this technique shows good potential for replacing traditional boil-off calorimetry.