Cold Facts Digital – Page 63 – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

ASC Attendees Spend Event-Filled Week

This year’s Applied Superconductivity Conference, ASC14, hosted 1,523 attendees from 36 countries, with 791 papers submitted for peer review. Held at the Charlotte NC Convention Center, August 10-15, the event’s theme was “Race to Energy Efficiency,” incorporating the racecar theme of its proximity to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which...

Historical Retrospective: CSA’s Birth in the Early Days of the Space Age

We’ve always heard that CSA began in 1964 with the growing need for cryogenics in the burgeoning Space Age. We decided to take a look at the unfolding of this phenomenon in the pages of Cryogenic Technology, “the Journal of the Cryogenic Society of America,” Volume 1, 1964-1965.

ICEC25/ICMC2014 Held at University of Twente, the Netherlands

The 25th International Cryogenic Engineering Conference and International Cryogenic Materials Conference took place July 7-11 at the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands.

The 18th International Cryocooler Conference

The 18th International Cryocooler Conference was held June 9-12 in Syracuse NY at the beautiful Syracuse University campus. Conference Chairman Rich Dausman and Co-chairman Dr. Chao Wang, both of Cryomech, Inc., hosted 161 attendees, including 11 students and six retirees, representing 14 different countries.

The Future with Cryogenic Fluid Dynamics

The applications of cryogenic systems have expanded over the past 50 years into many areas of our lives. This article will discuss the likely impact of cryogenic fluid dynamics on future cryogenic systems, and hopefully inspire further research to support and expand the use of existing findings and to improve...

Discovery of Helium in Natural Gas: A Retrospective

A very interesting insight into the evolution of helium production and personal insights into the life and contributions of H. P. Cady was presented by his grandson, Dr. Ralph Cady Longsworth, retired from APD Cryogenics, in a paper entitled “100th anniversary of the discovery of helium in natural gas,” presented...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

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

Suppliers of regenerator materials

I was looking for suppliers of regenerator materials. Can you please provide a list of vendors for: • Lead spheres • Bronze screen discs • Rare earth materials and spheres Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Containing ice accumulation while recovering helium

We are implementing a system to recover helium from our Janis ST-500 continuous flow LHe cryostat. The recovery system uses standard 1/4″ plastic tubing, which we connect directly to the cryostat’s exhaust port. The problem with this setup is that the gas is still quite cold as it leaves the...

Looking for some advice regarding cryogenic modeling in ANSYS FEA software

I am looking for some advice regarding cryogenic modeling in ANSYS FEA software. I have been trying to use the Transient Thermal module, in workbench 14.5, to model the cooling of a device in a dilution fridge. I have approximate values for the cooling power of each plate in the...

Compensators and/or accumulators: Are they used in cryogenics?

Are compensators and/or accumulators, high or low pressure, used in cryogenics? Are they used in space?

CATEGORIES