Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories (GTL), a leader in cryogenic composite technologies, has spent over a decade developing ultra-lightweight cryotanks to transform liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage and transfer systems. Focused on aerospace and hydrogen-electric propulsion, GTL’s composite vacuum-jacketed dewar tanks deliver hydrogen weight fractions between 60% and 80% while reducing tank mass by up to...
When cryogenic liquids or propellants are transferred from a storage tank to another empty atmospheric storage tank, a chill-down process occurs in the empty tank. The wall temperature of the empty tank is relatively high compared to the cryogenic liquids; thus, evaporation of the cryogenic fluid and a temperature reduction process occur during the filling of the empty tank.
The tank had a...
The Cryogenic Fluid In-situ Liquefaction for Landers (CryoFILL) tests were performed by NASA to demonstrate a technique for liquefaction of oxygen gas that will be produced on the Lunar or Martian surface. The test setup included a 2.1 cubic meter tank with a broad area cooling (BAC) network. A commercial cryocooler provided cooling to the BAC working fluid. Nearly forty steady state and...
As mankind expands its sphere of activity into outer space, such as the moon and Mars, it is expected that cryogenic fluids management technology in the environment that its gravity acceleration differs from that on the earth will be increasingly required. In general, when developing equipment that uses cryogenic fluids, especially for use in space, it is extremely difficult to conduct...
In a cryogenic tank chilldown, cryogenic sprays are used to rapidly cool the ullage gas and the tank wall. During chilldown, droplets generated from the spray impinge on the tank wall and exchange heat through boiling regimes such as film boiling, transition boiling, nucleate boiling, and single-phase convection. Since cooling rates differ in each regime, developing computational sub-models...
To enable the design of future terrestrial as well as in-space cryogenic propellant transfer systems such as Lunar and Martian ascent and descent stages, cryogenic fuel depots, nuclear thermal propulsion systems, and ground transportation equipment for liquid hydrogen systems, high accuracy analytical and design tools of various phases of the propellant transfer process are highly desired....
The use of hydrogen as an energy source to fuel aircraft is one of the alternatives currently being evaluated by Airbus. For this type of application, a liquid hydrogen cryogenic storage is considered and heat transfer phenomena involved by the cooling of a structure by the impingement of cryogenic liquid jet should be understood. To this purpose, the phenomena will be described based on the...
Managing heat in space is essential for spacecraft to operate within acceptable thermal limits, and ensure the success of extended missions. Future applications, such as the storage of cryogenic propellants in space depots, impose strict requirements on thermal control, making it necessary to adopt efficient means to meet these requirements. Consequently, while both active and passive thermal...
