Cryogenic Design and Safety Review,NASA-Langley Research Center 0.3Meter Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel,

摘要

The findings of a Cryogenic Design and Safety Review of the NASA-Langley 0.3 m Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel are presented in this report. The tunnel working fluid and coolant is nitrogen. The nitrogen,supplied as liquid,is exhausted as a low temperature gas. The use and storage of liquid nitrogen at the facility presents several potential hazards to personnel and equipment. An appropriate cryogenic design minimizes these risks,and provides for convenient tunnel operation and for the economical use of the liquid nitrogen. The tunnel and ancilliary systems are generally well designed but several recommendations to improve the cryogenic systems are made. The cost of recovering the cold vent gas is compared to the cost of producing the required liquid nitrogen using a captive air separation plant. Although the economic analysis is preliminary,it shows that because of the periodic operation of the tunnel, a captive air separation plant has a lower annual operating cost than the vent gas recovery systems considered.