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Saint-Gobain Seals Releases Special Technical White Paper Exploring Critical Factors of Seal Selection in Cryogenic Space Applications

Saint-Gobain Seals has released a special technical white paper for engineers and manufacturers in the space industry titled “Sealing Solutions in Critical Cryogenic Applications: Going Beyond Leakage Rate,” describing key as well as overlooked factors related to seal selection for core systems in extreme environments such as cryogenic fuel tanks...

Hydrogen Fuel Cell-powered Drone Sets New Flight Time Record

A new Guinness World Record for the longest multi-rotor flight time was achieved by South Korean company MetaVista (CSA CSM) using Intelligent Energy’s 800W fuel cell power. The quadcopter drone flew for 12 hours, 7 minutes and 5 seconds using liquid hydrogen to fuel the module.

Yale Experiment Features Quantum Physics in a Liquid

For the first time, Yale physicists using liquid helium directly observed quantum behavior within the vibrations of a liquid body. A great deal of ongoing research is currently devoted to discovering and exploiting quantum effects in the motion of macroscopic objects made of solids and gases, so this new experiment...

DOE Announces Graduate Student STEM Awards

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program announced 70 awards to be distributed to students at 52 universities in the US that focus on doctoral degrees in physical sciences. The aim of the awards program is to prepare graduate students for science, technology,...

Electron Camera at SLAC Films High-speed Molecular Movie

Researchers using an extremely fast electron camera at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have made the first high-definition “movie” of ring-shaped molecules breaking open in response to light.

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Mixed Refrigerant Cycles

Most cryogenic refrigeration systems, both large scale systems and cryocoolers, use helium as a working fluid. There are a number of advantages to helium, not the least of which is that helium remains a fluid down to the lowest achievable temperatures. In order to freeze helium, pressures of over 20...

Fountain Pumps and He II Phase Separators

Helium II (He II), the second liquid phase of the 4He isotope described in this column in Cold Facts Spring 2010 (http://2csa.us/he2), can be modeled as consisting of two interpenetrating fluids. One, the superfluid component, has zero viscosity and entropy and the other, the normal fluid component, has nonzero viscosity...

Turboexpanders

A vital technology in the refrigerators and liquefiers described in Cold Facts Volume 31 Number 3 is that of turboexpanders. These devices are rotating machines in which the process fluid (e.g., helium) does work against the turboexpander while moving from high pressure to a lower pressure and thus is cooled....

Food Processing

Cryogenics and Food The industrial gas industry provides a host of products and services related to food. The various gases have useful and sometimes fascinating applications in food industry. “The food industry is not a homogenous industry. The needs of customers processing hamburger vs. poultry vs. strawberries vs. seafood, for...

Primary Standards

Elie K. Track Hypres, Inc. elie@hypres.com http://www.hypres.com/ Primary standards involve the exact definition and realization of units of measurement for various quantities, time, length, mass, voltage, resistance, current, etc. International agreements based on the latest scientific knowledge define those units, and their realizations vary depending on the unit itself. For...

Shrink Fitting

Robin A. Rhodes Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Shrink fitting, (or “compression fitting” as it is sometimes called), is a method used to insert a pin or bushing into a housing or other assembly requiring an extremely tight tolerance fit. It can be used as an alternative to...

Telecommunications

From the Winter 2004 issue of Cold Facts magazine The recent M-Calc IV — 4th Industry Assessment workshop discussing military and commercial applications for low-cost cryocoolers, held in November in San Diego, highlighted progress being made in cryogenics as applied in telecommunications. The reliability and long lifetime of projects now...

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...