Ambient air vaporizers are used to regasify cryogenic liquids at extremely low temperature (below -153°C). Frost formation occurs on it due to large temperature difference between ambient air and cryogenic fluid. Frosting induces additional load on equipment and reduces its heat transfer effectiveness. Hence, mechanical and thermal design of vaporizers account for frosting. An experimental set-up has been designed and effects of flow rate and ground clearance on the performance of ambient air vaporizers are evaluated. The flow rate is increased from the rated capacity of 500 Nm3/h to 640 Nm3/h and ground clearance is reduced from 500 mm to 175 mm. The above variations reduce the time duration for which gaseous nitrogen is delivered at temperature higher than 10.1 °C (desired). Hence duty cycle reduces from eight hours to five hours. The other factors affecting performance such as fin configuration, fluid type, fluid pressure, intermittent flow nature and climatic conditions are assumed to be constant over the test duration. The decrement in outlet gas temperature (from 38 °C to 10.1°C) with corresponding increment in frost thickness leads to deterioration of performance of ambient air vaporizers.
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