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IEEE CSC Graduate Study Fellowship winners announced

The IEEE Council on Superconductivity (CSC) Awards Committee has announced the winners of the 2015 IEEE CSC Graduate Study Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded annually to a full-time graduate student pursuing a PhD (or equivalent) degree in the area of applied superconductivity and is intended to encourage students to enter...

LCLS-II Upgrade to Enable Pioneering Research in Many Fields

Cold Facts visited Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory recently to learn more about the lab's involvement in LCLS-II, a project that will provide a major upgrade to the functionality of the existing Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory. LCLS-II involves several scientific institutions, features cutting-edge physics...

PIP-II to Advance Intense Particle Beam Physics

With the power of Proton Improvement Plan-II, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is planning to construct and operate the foremost facility in the world for particle physics utilizing intense beams.

Pump Design and Operation Tips from DH Industries

Pumps and their efficiencies will increase the heat load of a closed loop cryogenic cooling system, so it is important that these pumps be as efficient as possible to minimize cost and supply use. Francesco Dioguardi, Martijn Donkers and Harrie Vermeulen of DH Industries provide pump design and operation tips...

Development of HTS CORC Cables for High Field Magnets and Advanced Power Transmission

Dr. Danko van der Laan, the 2014 Roger W. Boom awardee, discusses the development of high temperature superconductors (HTS) and their applications in high field magnets and advanced power transmission. He also explains an approach to cable ReBCO tapes called Conductor on Round Core (CORC™) cables, which feature layers of...

Superconductivity record bolstered by magnetic data

Nature reports that scientists in Germany have observed the common molecule hydrogen sulfide superconducting at a record-breaking 203K (-70°C) when subjected to very high pressures. Researchers A. P. Drozdov, M. I. Eremets, I. A. Troyan, V. Ksenofontov and S. I. Shylin report their findings in their paper "Conventional superconductivity at...

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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