Layers Of Multilayer Insulation Research Articles

Hydrogen fuel cell aircraft for the Nordic market

A model for a fuel cell propelled 50 PAX hydrogen aircraft is developed. In terms of year 2045 Nordic air travel demand this aircraft is expected to cover 97% of travel distances and 58% of daily passenger volume. Using an ATR 42 as a baseline, cryogenic tanks and fuel cell stacks are sized and propulsion system masses updated. Fuselage and wing resizing are required, which increases mass and wetted area. Sizing methods for the multi-stack fuel cell and the cryogenic tanks are implemented. The dynamic aircraft model is updated with models for hydrogen consumption and tank pressure control. For the Multi-layer insulation (MLI) tank a trade study is performed. A ventilation pressure of 1.76 bar and 15 MLI layers are found to be optimal for the design mission. A return-without-refuel mission is explored, where for a 10-hour ground hold 38.4% of the design range is retained out of the theoretically achievable 50%.

Numerical modeling and optimization of thermal insulation for liquid hydrogen storage tanks

Liquid hydrogen storage is one of the effective hydrogen storage methods due to its high density of 70.8 kg/m3 compared to gaseous hydrogen of 0.0838 kg/m3 at atmospheric pressure. Liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic storage technology, which minimizes heat flux by stacking multiple insulation layers in a high vacuum (10−1–10−5 Pa). However, large-scale tanks use a medium vacuum (100–10−1 Pa) to reduce maintenance expenses. Solid insulation is applied to prevent liquefaction of residual gas up to 150 K, followed by the stacking of multilayer insulation (MLI) with a vapor−cooling shield (VCS) to minimize the insulation thickness. In this study, a numerical model was developed to calculate the heat flux of a storage tank based on the physical tank shape. The insulation thickness was also optimized for two insulation systems (solid insulation + MLI and solid insulation + MLI + VCS). Optimal VCS placement on solid insulation, determined through sensitivity analysis, reduces 64.2 % of MLI layers under 5 Pa vacuum pressure. Total insulation thickness reduction of 51.4 % at 1 Pa vacuum pressure was obtained based on a hydrogen storage tank volume of 4200 m3. The effects of insulation thickness reduction are remained even when the vacuum pressure is increased to 5 Pa.

Electrostatic Testing of Multilayer Insulation for In-Space Cryogenic Vehicles

Multilayer insulation (MLI) can provide large thermal benefits for the storage of cryogenic propellants on-orbit, reducing the heat loads through large areas on storage tanks by two orders of magnitude. Such MLI has flown in space either within contained environments, such as a vacuum jacketed tank (tank in a tank), or external to a spacecraft, but heavily grounded to prevent the build-up of charge on the blanket. The grounding lugs deployed on a traditional spacecraft blanket require each layer to be electrically and thermally grounded to a metallic lug that passes through all the reflective layers. Thus, the metallic lug can have as much heat load through it as several square meters of blanket, significantly reducing the benefit of using the MLI (by a factor as high as 30). As NASA explores the benefits of applying MLI to large cryogenic stages, various environmental effects may change the application of the MLI to those stages. These environmental effects must be both understood and accounted for in the development of MLI, specifically for these applications. Testing was performed to understand the charge build up that multiple different outer covers would generate in both low earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). The test set up included an aluminum 6061 baseplate, a 25-mm-thick polyurethane foam, and either 10 or 25 layers of MLI (approximately 2.5 layers per mm) with an outer cover material. Cover materials tested included indium tin oxide (ITO), germanium, and aluminum, all deposited on a 2-mil-thick Kapton substrate. Testing occurred at room temperature and at a temperature of around 170 K. Results indicated that the blankets with Aluminum or ITO outer covers did not arc at voltages less than 250-V negative in simulated LEO and electron beam irradiation of 5.8-keV energy and up to 3-nA/cm2 current density in simulated GEO conditions. These results can be used to minimize the number of grounding points for large blankets or perhaps eliminate them.

Repeatability Measurements of Apparent Thermal Conductivity of Multilayer Insulation (MLI)

This report presents and discusses the results of repeatability experiments gathered from the multi-layer insulation thermal conductivity experiment (MIKE) for the measurement of the apparent thermal conductivity of multi-layer insulation (MLI) at variable boundary temperatures. Our apparatus uses a calibrated thermal link between the lower temperature shield of a concentric cylinder insulation assembly and the cold head of a cryocooler to measure the heat leak. In addition, thermocouple readings are taken in-between the MLI layers. These measurements are part of a multi-phase NASA-Yetispace-FSU collaboration to better understand the repeatability of thermal conductivity measurements of MLI. NASA provided five 25 layer coupons and requested boundary temperatures of 20 K and 300 K. Yetispace provided ten 12-layer coupons and requested boundary temperatures of 77 K and 293 K. Test conditions must be met for a duration of four hours at a steady state variance of less than 0.1 K/hr on both cylinders. Temperatures from three Cernox® temperature sensors on each of the two cylinders are averaged to determine the boundary temperatures. A high vacuum, less than 10-5 torr, is maintained for the duration of testing. Layer density varied from 17.98 – 26.36 layers/cm for Yetispace coupons and 13.05 – 17.45 layers/cm for the NASA coupons. The average measured heat load for the Yetispace coupons was 2.40 W for phase-one and 2.92 W for phase-two. The average measured heat load for the NASA coupons was 1.10 W. This suggests there is still unknown variance of MLI performance. It has been concluded, variations in the insulation installation heavy effect the apparent thermal conductivity and are not solely dependent on layer density.

Experimental study on heat transfer through a few layers of multilayer insulation from 300 K to 4.2 K

The final focusing magnet system at the SuperKEKB interaction region has been designed under stringent space constraints and consists of 8 main Superconducting (SC) quadrupole magnets, 4 compensation SC solenoids, and 43 SC correction coils. SC correction coils are directly wound on the inner containment tubes of liquid helium (LHe) vessels, which serve as support bobbins for SC cables. Beam pipes, which are kept at room temperature (∼300 K), are inserted into the cold bores of the vessel inner tubes. Between them, the minimal radial gaps are only 3.5 mm. Heat transfer from the warm beam pipes causes the raised operation temperatures of SC cables and increases heat leaks into cryostats. Multilayer insulation (MLI) is adopted to reduce heat flux in the narrow gaps. MLI performance as a function of the layer number was studied with a vertical anti-cryostat of dedicated design. The measurements were carried out by a calorimeter of thermal conduction and a modified LHe boil-off method. This paper presents the cryogenic measurement system and discusses the experimental results for the cryostats of the SuperKEKB final focusing SC magnets.

Wrapped multilayer insulation design and testing

New vehicles need improved cryogenic propellant storage and transfer capabilities for long duration missions. Multilayer insulation (MLI) for cryogenic propellant feedlines is much less effective than MLI tank insulation, with heat leak into spiral wrapped MLI on pipes 3–10 times higher than conventional tank MLI. Better insulation for cryogenic feed lines is an important enabling technology that could help NASA reach cryogenic propellant storage and transfer requirements. Improved insulation for Ground Support Equipment could reduce cryogen losses during launch vehicle loading. Wrapped-MLI (WMLI) is a high performance multilayer insulation using innovative discrete spacer technology specifically designed for cryogenic transfer lines and Vacuum Jacketed Pipe (VJP) to reduce heat flux.The poor performance of traditional MLI wrapped on feed lines is due in part to compression of the MLI layers, with increased interlayer contact and heat conduction. WMLI uses discrete spacers that maintain precise layer spacing, with a unique design to reduce heat leak. A Triple Orthogonal Disk spacer was engineered to minimize contact area/length ratio and reduce solid heat conduction for use in concentric MLI configurations.A new insulation, WMLI, was developed and tested. Novel polymer spacers were designed, analyzed and fabricated; different installation techniques were examined; and rapid prototype nested shell components to speed installation on real world piping were designed and tested. Prototypes were installed on tubing set test fixtures and heat flux measured via calorimetry. WMLI offered superior performance to traditional MLI installed on cryogenic pipe, with 2.2W/m2 heat flux compared to 26.6W/m2 for traditional spiral wrapped MLI (5 layers, 77–295K). WMLI as inner insulation in VJP can offer heat leaks as low as 0.09W/m, compared to industry standard products with 0.31W/m. WMLI could enable improved spacecraft cryogenic feedlines and industrial hot/cold transfer lines.

Heat flux from 277 to 77 K through a few layers of multilayer insulation

The insulating ability of a multilayer insulation (MLI) system, consisting of a few layers on an aluminium taped 77 K surface, was experimentally studied to understand quantitatively how thermal performance changes with the number of multilayers and vacuum level. This information can help to make design decisions trading-off the cost of material and installation manpower against liquid nitrogen consumption in many cryogenic applications. The ratios of the measured heat flux for different systems are: Q( painted) : Q( taped) : Q( 5 layers) : Q( 10 layers) : Q( 20 layers) Q( 30 layers) = 1 : 0.19 : 0.06 : 0.037 : 0.027 : 0.022. The effective thermal conductivity also increases with the number of layers so only a marginal benefit can be gained in excess of 30 layers; for large liquid vessels 30–40 layers are recommended. The heat flux and temperature distribution in the MLI were also measured as functions of vacuum pressure. The temperature of the last layer is closer to the temperature of the warm box than that of the first layer is to the cold surface, even if the last layer is separated from the warm box and the first layer is in contact with the cold surface. The results and heat transfer mechanisms through MLI are analysed and discussed.