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Mattia Checchin earns first prize at SRF 2015 for poster on accelerator cavity work

Mattia Checchin, a PhD student at the Illinois Institute of Technology conducting his thesis research at Fermilab, won first prize for his poster on superconducting radio frequency (SRF) accelerator cavity performance at the recent 17th International Conference on Radio Frequency Superconductivity (SRF 2015) in Whistler, Canada.

New multi-SQUID device cuts costs, improves sensitivity

Physicists in the United Kingdom have built a multi-SQUID device that can operate at 77K, the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. According to research published in Applied Physics Letters, the new device outperforms the industry standard niobium/aluminium trilayer single-SQUIDS maintained at 4.2K. "Since our SQUID arrays operate at 77K using...

Is magnetic cooling the future of cool?

Ames Laboratory scientists almost 20 years ago announced groundbreaking progress in magnetic refrigeration and yet there are still no known commercially available products that use a magnetic cooling system. Magnetic cooling exploits the magnetocaloric effect, a temperature change of a material caused by exposing it to a changing magnetic field,...

Master Bond announces new one component epoxy

Master Bond on October 13 unveiled a new single part adhesive sealant for use in a variety of applications in aerospace, electronic, optical, specialty OEM and related industries. The Master Bond Supreme 10HTF-1 offers cryogenic serviceability from 4K to +400°F and resists an array of chemicals such as water, fuels,...

New atomic absorption spectrometer helps redefine the kelvin

A team of Australian scientists has developed an atomic absorption spectrometer that provides a new way to determine Boltzmann’s constant, a number that relates the motion of an individual atom to its temperature. The research, published in Nature Communication contributes to a worldwide scientific effort to redefine the kelvin, the...

DOE announces new accelerator stewardship funding opportunities

The US Department of Energy made available an estimated $4 million in grants on October 13 with a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for research opportunities associated with its Accelerator R&D Stewardship Program. Research funded under this FOA could lead to advances is High Energy Physics (HEP), but the grants are...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Two-Phase Flows

Two-phase flows are those flows in which there is a mixture of two physical states (solid, liquid or vapor). In cryogenic applications, such flows are almost always a mixture of a cryogenic liquid along with its corresponding vapor. A mixture of liquid helium and helium vapor would be a typical...

Supercritical Fluids

A supercritical fluid is defined as a substance whose temperature and pressure exceed those of its critical point. Every pure substance has a critical point that is defined in thermodynamic space by a critical temperature and a corresponding critical pressure. For example, the critical point for helium has a critical...

Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle is one of the many thermodynamic cycles used to generate cooling at cryogenic temperatures. Strictly speaking, when referring to cooling we should call this the reverse Brayton cycle as the original Brayton cycle describes the process of power generation or propulsion via a gas turbine. In many...

Latest in Cryo Central

Magnets

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...

Energy Storage

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...

Astronomy

ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...

Cryocoolers

What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...

Latest in Ask the Experts

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...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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