Superconducting cable cooling system by helium gas at two pressures

Patent · Tue Apr 26 04:00:00 EDT 1977

OSTI ID:5370543

Dean, J W

Thermally contacting, oppositely streaming, cryogenic fluid streams in the same enclosure in a closed cycle changes the fluid from a cool high pressure helium gas to a cooler reduced pressure helium gas in an expander so as to be at different temperature ranges and pressures respectively in go and return legs that are in thermal contact with each other and in thermal contact with a longitudinally extending superconducting transmission line enclosed in the same cable enclosure that insulates the line from the ambient at a temperature T/sub 1/. By first circulating the fluid from a refrigerator at one end of the line as a cool gas at a temperature range T/sub 2/ to T/sub 3/ in the go leg, then circulating the gas through an expander at the other end of the line where the gas becomes a cooler gas at a reduced pressure and at a reduced temperature T/sub 4/ and finally by circulating the cooler gas back again to the refrigerator in a return leg at a temperature range T/sub 4/ to T/sub 5/, while in thermal contact with the gas in the go leg, and in the same enclosure therewith for compression into a higher pressure gas at T/sub 2/ in a closed cycle, where T/sub 2/ greater than T/sub 3/ and T/sub 5/ greater than T/sub 4/, the fluid leaves the enclosure in the go leg as a gas at its coldest point in the go leg, and the temperature distribution is such that the line temperature decreases along its length from the refrigerator due to the cooling from the gas in the return leg.

• Assignee: Energy Research and Development Administration
• Patent Number(s): US 4020275
• OSTI ID: 5370543
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

200303* -- Power Transmission & Distribution-- Superconducting & Cryogenic Systems-- (-1989)
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
420201 -- Engineering-- Cryogenic Equipment & Devices
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
APPLIANCES
CABLES
CONDUCTOR DEVICES
COOLING SYSTEMS
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
DESIGN
ELECTRIC APPLIANCES
ELECTRIC CABLES
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FLUIDS
GAS APPLIANCES
HELIUM
NONMETALS
OPERATION
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
RARE GASES
REFRIGERATING MACHINERY
REFRIGERATORS
SUPERCONDUCTING CABLES