Cryogenics insulation

♠ Why Insulation?

♠ Different types of Cryogenic Insulations

- Expanded Foam and Powder Insulations

♠ A comparative study

♠ Applications
 Introductions

● Storage of a cryogen (say, LN2) is difficult, as there is a continuous boil off due to heat in

leaks.

● These vessels cannot be sealed as boil off generates huge volumes of vapour, resulting in

large pressure rise. This may lead to bursting.

● For example, vapor to liquid volume ratio for a general cryogen is 175 (1600 for water).

● To avoid the pressure rise, the need of insulation is vital. Insulation or a combination of

insulations, minimize all these modes of heat transfer.

 Heat Transfer

● Consider a LN2 container as shown in the figure.

● The inner vessel is housed inside an outer vessel and these
vessels are separated by some form of insulation.
● Also, the inner vessel is supported using lateral beams as
shown.
● The liquid boils off continuously due to the various modes of
heat transfer.
 Heat Transfer

Different modes of heat transfer are

Conduction: The heat is conducted through lateral
beams, neck and residual gas conduction.
Convection: The air between inner and outer
vessels convect heat into the liquid.
Radiation: The radiation heat transfer from 300 K
outer vessel to 77 K inner vessel.
Types of Insulation

Insulation

Mass Reflective Vacuum

Multi layer
Fibrous Cellular Granular Metal Foils
Insulations
Types of Insulation

● Expanded Foam – Mass

● Gas Filled Powders & Fibrous Materials –Mass
● Vacuum alone –Vacuum
● Evacuated Powders –Mass + Vacuum
● Opacified Powders –Mass + Vacuum + Reflective
● Multilayer Insulation –Vacuum + Reflective
Types of Insulation

The choice of insulation for a particular application is a compromise between the

following factors.
● Thermal Conductivity
● Temperature
● Effectiveness of Insulation
● Cost
● Ease of application
● Weight and reliability
A combination of insulations is used to prevent different modes of heat transfer.
 Apparent Thermal Conductivity
● As seen earlier, the different modes of heat transfer are Gas and Solid
Conductions, Convection and Radiation.
● Consider an element of insulation, separated by two temperatures (T1>T2) as
shown below.
● Let Q be net heat transferred across this element by all possible modes of heat
transfer mentioned above.
● If A and L be the area of the cross section and length of the element respectively,
the apparent thermal conductivity (kA) is defined as
 Expanded Foams

● Expanded foam is a low density, cellular structure which is formed by evolving

gases during the manufacturing process.
● Gases that are generally used are CO2 and Freon.
● In other words, it is a solid –gas matrix with void spaces. The solid connections
together with gas trapped in cellular spaces form a continuous path.
● The heat is transferred only by conduction (solid conduction). The contribution
by convection and radiation are negligible.
● Examples are polyurethane foam, polystyrene foam, rubber, silica glass foam.
 Expanded Foams
● kA and density are as shown below. The operating temperature is between 77 K
to 300 K.
Expanded Foams
● The kA of the foam depends on the type of gas used and
also the temperature of the insulation.
● For a given gas, the performance of the foam is improved
by varying the void size and bulk density.
● The adjacent figure shows the variation of kA with the
mean cell diameter.
● With the decrease in the mean cell diameter, the solid
conduction path increases in the foam insulation.

● From the above equation, the Q decreases and hence the

kA decreases.
Expanded Foams
● At the same time, with the decrease in the mean cell
diameter, the bulk density of the foam increases.
● Therefore, kA is also a function of bulk density and it
increases with the increase in bulk density.
● The major advantage of an expanded foam is that it
offers an ease of fabrication.
● The foam is directly blown onto the surface of the vessel
to be insulated. It forms a self supporting structure.
● The cost of this insulation is also low as compared to
other types of insulations.
● Exposure of a CO2 expanded foam to LN2 temperatures,
increases the thermal conductivity.
 Expanded Foams
● At LN2 temperature, the vapor pressure of CO2 is less. As a result, most of CO2 is
condensed within the insulation and caters for the heat transfer.
● Also over a period of time, air, hydrogen or helium diffuse into foam from
external atmosphere.
● The kA of the foam increases due to increase in the gas conduction at room
temperature.
● Expanded foams have large thermal contractions, which pose a major
disadvantage.
● A rigid foam has a large thermal contraction between -30°C to +30°C.
● For example, coefficients of linear expansion are
αPolystyrene Foam : 7.20 x 10-5/°C
αCarbon Steel : 1.15 x 10-5/°C
● The foam when closely fitted around a LN2 vessel, crack due to difference
in shrinkages.
 Gas Filled Powder & Fibrous Insulations

● A gas filled powder or a fibrous insulation reduces or eliminates the gas

convection due to the small size of voids within the material.
● This is because, the distance between the powder particles within the insulation
is much smaller than the gas mean free path.
● As a result, the gaseous conduction mechanism shifts from continuum to free
molecular conduction decreasing the apparent thermal conductivity, kA.
● The commonly used insulations of this type are Fiber Glass, Perlite (Silica
Powder), Santocel, Rockwool, Vermichlitine.
 Gas Filled Powder & Fibrous Insulations

● kA and density are as shown below. The operating temperatures are between
77 K to 300 K.
 Gas Filled Powder & Fibrous Insulations

● The advantages of a gas filled powder are low thermal conductivity, low density

and low particle distribution to minimize the vibration effects.

● The insulation can either be evacuated or non –evacuated. Heat transfer by

residual gas is further minimized by low vapor pressure of the gas.

● Finely divided particulate materials make solid conduction paths disjointed and

discontinuous.

● The disadvantage is that moisture and air diffuse through the material to the cold

surface unless a vapor barrier is used. N2 purging is used.

 Gas Filled Powder & Fibrous Insulations
● Fill – gas should be unreactive and compatible with powder material.
● Powder tends to settle and packs due to vibrations, thermal contraction and
expansion.
● This creates increased solid conduction.
● Nusselt & Bayer developed the following expression for kA for a gas filled powder.

Vr – Ratio of solid particulate to total volume.

ks & kg–Thermal conductivity of Solid and Gas.
T–Mean temperature.
d–Mean diameter of fiber or powder.
 Gas Filled Powder & Fibrous Insulations

● At cryogenic temperatures, two assumptions are made

● T3 term is very small relative to kg term
● ks >> kg
● Therefore, the equation is

● Therefore, as Vr tends to zero, kA approaches kg.

● This is the lowest possible thermal conductivity of this insulation.
 Radiation – Fundamentals
● Consider two flat surfaces maintained at different
temperatures (T1>T2) as shown in the figure.
● There is continuous heat transfer between the two plates
due to the radiation.
● This mode of heat transfer does not require any medium
and is given by the following equation.

● In the above equation, it is clear that for a given A1, T1,

T 2, F 1 2, Qis directly proportional to the emissivity factor
Fe.
 Radiation – Fundamentals

● The Fe is reduced by introducing the radiation shields in the path of radiation

heat transfer as shown.
● The effective emissivity factor FN after introduction of N shields is as given
below.

● For the sake of understanding, let the values of e1, e2, and es be 0.8, 0.8, 0.05
respectively.
 vacuum
● It is important to note that even in vacuum, there is some residual gas.
● These gas molecules contribute to the heat transfer by gaseous conduction.
● As the vacuum improves, this gas conduction decreases.
● In an ordinary conduction, a linear temperature gradient is built up. The
molecules exchange heat with each other and as well as with the surfaces.
● But in vacuum, the mean free path (λ) of the molecules is more than the
distance between the surfaces; the molecules rarely collide with each other.
● The energy is exchanged only between the surface and the colliding molecules.
● This type of heat transfer is called as free molecular conduction or residual gas
conduction. This exists only at very low pressures or at very good vacuum.
 vacuum

● For the sake of understanding, consider two plates

with temperatures T1 and T2, (T2>T1) as shown.
● The gas pressure is very low in order to ensure that
the mean free path (λ) of the molecules is greater
than L.
● In such situations, the gas molecules collide only with
the surfaces and exchange energy.
● Consider a molecule colliding with bottom plate and
leaving towards upper plate.
● The gas molecule collides with this surface at T1
and it transfers some energy to the surface.
● It leaves the cold surface with a kinetic energy
corresponding to a temperature T’1, higher than T1.
● Again, consider a molecule colliding with upper
plate and leaving towards bottom plate.
● This gas molecule collides with surface at T2 and
leaves at a temperature T’2, lower than T2.
● It is clear that, in both these impacts, thermal
equilibrium is not attained. This process is
repeated and contributes to free molecular
conduction.
● In order to measure the degree of thermal equilibrium between the molecule
and the surface, we define Accommodation Coefficient (a).
● It is a ratio of actual energy transfer to the maximum possible energy transfer.
● Mathematically,

● Its value depends on the gas –surface interaction and the temperature of the
surface.
● From the figure, for the cold surface, the
actual temperature change is (T’2–T’1).
● But, the maximum possible temperature
change is (T’2–T1).
● By definition, the accommodation coefficient
for cold plate is

● From the earlier slides, the accommodation

coefficients are
● Rearranging the above equations, we have

● Similar to an emissivity factor, we define a term accommodation factor Fa,

which is given by
● The approximate accommodation coefficients for concentric sphere and
concentric cylinder geometries are as tabulated below.

● The subscript 1 denotes the enclosed surface and subscript 2 denotes the
enclosure.
● At a given temperature, the accommodation coefficient increases with the
increase in the molecular weight of the gas.
● For a given gas, the accommodation coefficient increases with the decrease in
the temperature, due to better heat transfer at lower temperatures.
● From the kinetic theory of gases, the total energy of a molecule is the sum of
internal energy and kinetic energy.
● Mathematically,
where,
R – Specific gas constant
cv= R/(γ-1)–Specific heat of gas
ΔT = (T’2–T’1)–Change in temperature
The definition of Cv and Fa are as given below.

Substituting, we have
The mass flux per unit time is given by

From Kinetic theory, average velocity is

Combining the above, together with equation of state, we have
The total energy transfer per unit area owing to the molecular conduction is as
given below.

T is the temperature of the pressure gauge measuring the gas pressure.

In the above equation, let us denote the term in the parenthesis by
G. We have,

Q is valid only when the distance (L) between the plates is less than
the mean free path (λ). Mathematically,
From the above two equations, it is clear that the
● The free molecular regime can be achieved by achieving very good vacuum.
● The free molecular conduction heat transfer can be made negligible
compared to other modes, by lowering the pressure, decreasing Fa,
decreasing (T2-T1).
 Evacuated Powder
● Gas conduction is the primary and the dominant mode of heat transfer in a
gas filled powder and fibrous insulations.
● One of the obvious ways to reduce this heat transfer is to evacuate the
powder and the fibrous insulations.
● Usually, the vacuum that is commonly maintained in these insulations is in the
range of 103 to 10-5 torr. 1 torr = 1 mm of Hg.
● The adjacent figure shows the variation of kA with
the residual gas pressure inside an evacuated
powder insulation.
● kA is independent of residual gas pressures lying
between atmospheric and 15 torr.
● With the lowering of pressure, 15 torr to 10-3 torr,
kA becomes directly proportional to the pressure.
● It varies almost linearly on a logarithmic chart as
shown.
● Here, the modes of heat transfer are due to
radiation, solid conduction and free molecular
conduction (dominant).
● With the further lowering of pressure, below 10-3 torr, the
variation of kA is almost null.
● The mode of heat transfer is primarily due to solid conduction
and radiation.
● Evacuated powders are superior in performance than vacuum
alone in 300 - 77 K, as the radiation heat transfer is
comparatively less.
● At low pressures and temperatures, the solid conduction in
evacuated powder dominates the radiant heat transfer.
● Hence, it is more advantageous to use vacuum alone in 77 K
to 4 K. From Fourier's Law, we have
● .
● The apparent thermal conductivity and density of few commonly used evacuated
powder insulations are as shown
● The residual gas pressure is less than 10-3 Torr for temperatures between 77 K
to 300 K.
 Opacified Powder Insulation

● Radiation heat transfer still contributes to the heat in leak in 300 K to 77 K

temperature range in case of evacuated powders.
● In the year 1960, Riedeand Wang, Hunteret. al. minimized this radiant heat
transfer by addition of reflective flakes made of Al or Cu to the evacuated
powder.
● These flakes act like radiant shields in the tiny heat transfer paths that are
formed in the interstices of the evacuated powder.
● The figure shows the variation of % opacifier with
thermal conductivity for Cu–santoceland Al –
santocel.
● There exists an optimum operating point for each of
these insulations.
● It has been observed that, with these additions, kA
can be reduced by 5 times.
● Cu flakes are more preferred as compared to Al
flakes.
● The Al flakes have large heat of combustion.
● These together with O2 can lead to accidents when
used on LOX containers.