• Login
    View Item 
    •   SMARTech Home
    • Georgia Tech Theses and Dissertations
    • Georgia Tech Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   SMARTech Home
    • Georgia Tech Theses and Dissertations
    • Georgia Tech Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Study of PocoFoam (TM) as a heat exchanger element in cryogenic applications

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    KELTNER-THESIS-2014.pdf (3.651Mb)
    Date
    2014-01-10
    Author
    Keltner, Noelle Joy
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Superconductors present great potential for weight reduction and increased power delivery when compared to traditional copper power delivery systems, but current systems require cryogenic cooling systems. Traditional superconductor cooling systems consist of helium cooled by helical heat exchangers made of Oxygen Free High thermal Conductivity (OFHC) copper tube. The helium is cooled by bulky heat exchangers consisting of OFHC copper coils wrapped around a cryogenic cooler heat sink for heat transfer into the working fluid. Metal foams have recently been studied in a variety of heat transfer applications, and could greatly reduce the weight of heat exchanger modules in superconductor cooling systems while simultaneously providing increased heat transfer effectiveness. Aluminum and Copper foams have been available for several years, but more recently, graphite foams, such as PocoFoam™, have been developed which have particularly good heat transfer characteristics. Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to model a cryogenic heat exchanger application, this study examines the effectiveness and pressure drop of several metal foam heat exchangers, and compares their performance with the traditional helical coil design for superconductor cooling applications. The CFD simulation results show that a heat exchanger with the same heat sink contact area as existing helical heat exchangers weighs up to 95 percent less and can be up to 25 percent more effective, depending on system conditions such as pressure, cryogenic cooler temperature and helium inlet temperature. Aluminum and copper foam heat exchangers had comparable weight to the PocoFoam heat exchanger, but were significantly less effective than the helical or PocoFoam heat exchanger models.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1853/51774
    Collections
    • Georgia Tech Theses and Dissertations [22398]
    • School of Mechanical Engineering Theses and Dissertations [3831]

    Browse

    All of SMARTechCommunities & CollectionsDatesAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypesThis CollectionDatesAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypes

    My SMARTech

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage StatisticsView Google Analytics Statistics
    • About
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
    • Emergency Information
    • Legal & Privacy Information
    • Accessibility
    • Accountability
    • Accreditation
    • Employment
    • Login
    Georgia Tech

    © Georgia Institute of Technology

    • About
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
    • Emergency Information
    • Legal & Privacy Information
    • Accessibility
    • Accountability
    • Accreditation
    • Employment
    • Login
    Georgia Tech

    © Georgia Institute of Technology