He II heat exchanger test unit for the LHC inner triplet
The Inner Triplet Heat Exchanger Test Unit (IT-HXTU) is a 30-m long thermal model designed at Fermilab, built in US industry, fully automated and tested at CERN as part of the US LHC program to develop the LHC Interaction Region quadrupole system. The cooling scheme of the IT-HXTU is based on heat exchange between stagnant pressurized He II in the magnet cold mass and saturated He II (two-phase) flowing in a heat exchanger located outside of and parallel to the cold mass. The purposes of this test are, among others, to validate the proposed cooling scheme and to define an optimal control strategy to be implemented in the future LHC accelerator. This paper discusses the results for the heat exchanger test runs and emphasizes the thermal and hydraulic behavior of He II for the inner triplet cooling scheme.
Effect of spray cooling on heat transfer in a two-phase helium flow
We describe an experimental study of the phenomenon of spray cooling in the case of liquid helium, either normal or superfluid, and its relationship to the heat transfer between an atomized two-phase flow contained in a long pipe, and the pipe walls. This situation is discussed in the context of the cooling of the superconducting magnets of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Experiments were conducted in a test loop reproducing the LHC cooling system, in which the vapor velocity and temperature could be varied in a large range. Shear induced atomization results in the generation of a droplet mist which was characterized by optical means. The thickness of the thin liquid film deposited on the walls by the mist was measured using interdigitated capacitors. The cooling power of the mist was measured using thermal probes, and correlated to the local mist density. Analysis of the results shows that superfluidity has only a limited influence on both the film thickness and the mist cooling power. Using a simple model, we show that the phenomenon of spray cooling accounts for the measured non-linearity of the global heat transfer. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our results for cooling the final focus magnets in an upgraded version of the LHC.
Computer-Aided System of Virtual Testing of Gas Turbine Engines
The article describes the concept of a virtual lab that includes subsystem of gas turbine engine simulation, subsystem of experiment planning, subsystem of measurement errors simulation, subsystem of simulator identification and others. The basis for virtual lab development is the computer-aided system of thermogasdynamic research and analysis “ASTRA”. The features of gas turbine engine transient modes simulator are described. The principal difference between the simulators of transient and stationary modes of gas turbine engines is that the energy balance of the compressor and turbine becomes not applicable. The computer-aided system of virtual gas turbine engine testing was created using the developed transient modes simulator. This system solves the tasks of operational (throttling, speed, climatic, altitude) characteristics calculation, analysis of transient dynamics and selection of optimal control laws. Besides, the system of virtual gas turbine engine testing is a clear demonstration of gas turbine engine working process and the regularities of engine elements collaboration. The interface of the system of virtual gas turbine engine testing is described in the article and some screenshots of the interface elements are provided. The developed system of virtual gas turbine engine testing provides means for reducing the laboriousness of gas turbine engines testing. Besides, the implementation of this system in the learning process allows the diversification of lab works and therefore improve the quality of training.