Cold Facts Digital – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

World record quality factor achieved at Fermilab

Earlier this year, Fermilab scientist Anna Grassellino began researching past successes and failures of accelerator cavities made of bulk-diffused niobium-nitride. Scientists reported less-than-stellar results in their tests in the 1990s and, in the years since, appeared to have mostly abandoned the material as a possibility for superconducting cavities. But Grassellino...

Superconductor ‘flaws’ could be key to its abilities

Many researchers studying superconductivity strive to create a clean, pure, perfect sample, but a team of physicists at Purdue University found that some flaws might hold the key to a material's unique abilities.

Cooled coal emissions would clean air, lower health and climate change costs

Refrigerating coal plant emissions would reduce levels of dangerous chemicals that pour into the air—including carbon dioxide— by more than 90 percent, at a cost of 25 percent efficiency, according to a simple math-driven formula designed by a team of University of Oregon physicists.

Israeli refrigerator part of equipment on Mars Curiosity Rover

The Curiosity rover, currently on Mars after recently landing in a tricky operation controlled by National Space and Aeronautics Administration (NASA) technicians, includes a refrigerator manufactured in Israel.

First room-temperature maser developed

British researchers have, for the first time, built a prototype solid-state maser that works at room-temperature, with no permanent applied magnetic field.

Estimating cost for components of a helium plant

I have to perform a cost estimation of our helium cryogenic plant design. I based it on the formula discussed in the following article “THE COST OF HELIUM REFRIGERATORS AND COOLERS FOR SUPERCONDUCTING DEVICES AS A FUNCTION OF COOLING AT 4 K” by M. A. Green: C(M$) = 2.6 [R(kW)]^0.63...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

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....

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

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?

CATEGORIES