Experimental and analytical studies on a foam insulated rigid type transfer line for use with liquid nitrogen

Abstract

The transfer line is one of the important components of any cryogenic system needed to transport the cryogenic fluid from one location to another. Towards our efforts to develop a long rigid-type transfer line for liquid nitrogen (LN2) to transfer this fluid from a 5000 litre capacity vertical storage tank to the Helium liquefier (Linde Model 1610) located at a distance of nearly 50 m, we designed and fabricated several units of straight section transfer lines of length ≈ 6.5 m and they were integrated to make the long length transfer line. Each unit was fabricated with 0.5 inch dia. copper inner tube supported by spacers within 2 inch dia. PVC outer tube. Each section was foam insulated after the necessary instrumentation for temperature measurements. The individual sub units were integrated together with a small bellow section in between to take care of thermal contraction during use. We present here the analytical and experimental studies of the cool down and mass flow characteristics of a single foam insulated unit. These experimental studies are representative results of the performances of the long length rigid foam insulated transfer line.