Speaker
Jared Sass
(NASA Kennedy Space Center)
Description
Culminating years of extensive research and development, field demonstrations have proven glass bubbles to be a superior insulation material for spherical liquid hydrogen storage tanks. Six years of operational history has been accumulated on a spherical 218,000-liter liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tank with glass bubbles insulation in the evacuated annulus. Over this period of time the tank has been subjected to two complete LH2 fillings and thermal cycles. Each load of LH2 took approximately two years to boil away, representing an approximate 100% performance improvement over the original perlite powder insulation. No special maintenance was necessary and the tank sustained normal vacuum levels. Infrared imagery showed the outer surface temperatures to be uniform. The full-scale field application of glass bubbles insulation builds upon years of laboratory testing (compatibility, vacuum, vibration, structural, thermal performance) and custom 1000-liter tank testing with both liquid nitrogen and LH2. To extend application of the technology to tanks of non-spherical geometry, analysis of a targeted application of glass bubbles insulation to a horizontal 830,000-liter LH2 storage tank is presented. Also discussed is a survey of other vacuum-jacketed cryogenic tanks operating around the world with glass bubbles insulation.
Primary author
Jared Sass
(NASA Kennedy Space Center)
Co-authors
Barry Meneghelli
(VENCORE)
Gregory Carmouche
(NASA Stennis Space Center)
James Fesmire
(NASA)
Rob Hunter
(3M Advanced Materials Division)
Rosa Obregon
(NASA Stennis Space Center)
