Introduction to the Compensation Systems

Big scientific facilities, like superconducting particle accelerators or fusion reactors require high cooling power, usually produced locally by large helium refrigerators and transferred, by means of liquid or supercritical helium, over the distances that may exceed several kilometres. Construction of cold helium transfer lines should take into consideration many different issues. The lines are exposed to thermal loads which can constitute an important part of the cryogenic system thermal budget. Pressure difference between the vacuum insulation and the inner content of the pipes causes significant mechanical stresses. The cyclic changes of temperature can lead to considerable fatigue stresses. Additionally, due to complex structure of the scientific facilities, the access to the cryogenic lines can be partly or totally limited. Therefore all these thermal and mechanical aspects have to be analyzed and compromised during the design phase of the complex helium transfer line.The paper presents a design methodology of long multi‐channel helium cryogenic transfer lines. It describes some aspects of process line arrangement, thermo‐mechanical calculation, supporting structure and contraction protection, taking as a case study cryogenic transfer line XATL1, dedicated for the Accelerator Module Test Facility (AMTF) of the European X‐rays Free Electron Laser (XFEL).

Characterisation and optimisation of flexible transfer lines for liquid helium. Part II: Thermohydraulic modelling

The design of the cryogenic system for the 11 GeV/c Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) is presented. A description of the cryogenic control reservoir and the cryogenic transfer line is given. Details of the cryogenic control reservoirs, cryogenic transfer lines, and pressure piping are summarized. Code compliance is ensured through following the requirements of the ASME Pressure Vessel Code and Pressure Piping Code. An elastic-plastic-analysis-based combined safety factor approach is proposed to meet the low stress requirement of ASME 2007 Section VIII, Division 2 so that Charpy V-notch (CVN) impact testing can be avoided through analysis. Material toughness requirements in ASME 2007 Section VIII, Division 2 are adopted as CVN impact testing rules of stainless steel 304 piping at 4.2 K and 77 K. A formula-based combined safety factor approach for pressure piping is also proposed to check whether the impact testing can be avoided due to low stress. Analysis and calculation have shown that no CVN impact testing of base metal and heat affected zones is required for the helium reservoir, nitrogen reservoir, and their relevant piping. Total heat loads to liquid helium and liquid nitrogen are studied also. The total heat load to LHe for SHMS is estimated to be 137 W, and the total load to LN2 is calculated to be 420 W.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) is developing the international Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) to advance neutrino science. The flagship of the DUNE project consists of a large particle detector constructed one-mile (1.6 km) beneath the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, SD. The SURF detector is the largest of its type ever built and is comprised of four cryostats totaling 70,000 tons of liquid argon (LAr) to record neutrino interactions with unprecedented precision. Each cryostat houses a detector, the first includes 150 Anode Panel Assemblies (APA) submersed within 17,500 tons of LAr. Before installing 150 APA within the SURF detector they will be cryogenically cooled to nominally 90 K at the APA Test Facility (APATF) utilizing nitrogen flows. The APATF cryogenic system is entirely located one-mile underground at the SURF facility and includes nominally 13 kW of refrigeration at 80 K, cryogenic transfer lines, APA test cryostats, a cryogenic control system, and various control and pressure safety elements to ensure performance and safety requirements are achieved. The APATF preliminary design is in progress and major considerations include an efficient, cost-effective mechanism to deliver the required refrigeration to the APATF underground, support of rigid testing intervals to support the DUNE operating schedule, temperature stability of the APA and electronics within cryostats, efficient cryogenic system operation to minimize heat leak and/or liquid nitrogen consumption, thermo-mechanical stability and flexibility of components, and pressure safety of the APATF cryogenic system. Installation and integration of the APATF cryogenic system within the footprint and to adjacent sub-systems is also discussed.

This report describes the essential elements of the cryogenic system. The cryogenic distribution system starts at the level of the linac superconducting RF cavities [1] and moves out through the cryogenic piping to the liquid helium refrigeration plant that will be used to cool the RF cavities and the undulator magnets. For this report, the cryogenic distribution system and cryogenic refrigerator includes the following elements: (1) The piping within the linac cryogenic modules will influence the heat transfer through the super-fluid helium from the outer surface of the TESLA niobium cavity and the liquid to gas interface within the horizontal header pipe where the superfluid helium boils. This piping determines the final design of the linac cryogenic module. (2) The acceptable pressure drops determine the supply and return piping dimensions. (3) The helium distribution system is determined by the need to cool down and warm up the various elements in the light source. (4) The size of the cryogenic plant is determined by the heat loads and the probable margin of error on those heat loads. Since the final heat loads are determined by the acceleration gradient in the cavities, a linac with five cryogenic modules will be compared to a linac with only four cryogenic modules. The design assumes that all cryogenic elements in the facility will be cooled using a common cryogenic plant. To minimize vibration effects on the beam lines, this plant is assumed to be located some distance from the synchrotron light beam lines. All of the cryogenic elements in the facility will be attached to the helium refrigeration system through cryogenic transfer lines. The largest single cryogenic load is the main linac, which consists of four or five cryogenic modules depending on the design gradient for the cavities in the linac section. The second largest heat load comes from the cryogenic modules that contain the transverse deflecting RF cavities. The injector linac is the third largest heat load. The seven superconducting undulator magnets in the hard x-ray production section are the smallest heat loads connected to the light source refrigeration plant. The linac and deflecting cavity sections require helium cooling at 1.9 K, 5 K and 40 K. The undulator magnets require two-phase helium cooling at 4.3 to 4.5 K.

Dynamic simulation of safety relief process under vacuum failure scenarios in large cryogenic system

Large cryogenic systems, like those installed at CERN, are complex systems relying on many diverse physical processes and phenomena that are difficult to simulate and monitor in detail. With only a limited number of properties measured and made available for monitoring and control purposes, several processes contributing to the dynamics of the systems are ignored. This lack of information can reduce the accuracy and the capability of a model to track, predict, and anticipate the behavior of the system. Accurate analytical or numerical computer modeling can be developed to simulate the non-linear dynamics of the processes but they are complex, computationally intensive, and cumbersome to test, validate, and implement with different configurations and limited measurements of the hidden properties. In this work, we present our investigation of using Graph Neural Networks (GNN) to build a model of the helium II bayonet heat exchanger operating in the LHC at CERN. We are proposing to use a hybrid machine learning approach, where the parameters of the GNN model are estimated by a combination of supervised learning algorithms trained on experimental data and bounding physics equations and parameters. The GNN model was initially trained on data from the experiments performed on the LHC prototype magnet strings and validated on data extracted during the operation of the LHC machine. We demonstrate the model’s accuracy, repeatability, and robustness in various configurations. The model is also well inspectable and explainable, providing the time evolution of all variables. We report on the results and expected applications, which include predictive control, diagnostic, and operator training.

Experimental Study of Minimizing Heat Leakage of Cryogenic Transfer Lines

Selected aspects related to the calculations and design of a cryogenic transfer line

Development, design and installation of multichannel transfer lines at W7-X under extreme geometrical constraints

The stresses developed in the solenoid and VLPC transfer lines have been investigated with the PipePlus v4.5 software package from Algor. 4 cases were considered for each transfer line and the following results were obtained. Pipe deflections have also been kept to a minimum by carefully considering the location of spider guides. Their placement should be as close as possible to the locations shown in Figures 4-7. With regard to chosen pipe sizes, the 2.5-inch OD Cu radiation shield in the solenoid transfer line should be replaced with a 3.5-inch OD tube. The vacuum jackets should also be replaced with 5-inch or larger pipe. These changes should safely accommodate the maximum displacements caused by thermal loading. This engineering note investigates the ability of the solenoid and VLPC cryogenic transfer lines to accommodate thermal stresses. The solenoid and VLPC transfer lines are similar in their construction in that they consist of an outer vacuum jacket, liquid nitrogen supply and return lines, a copper thermal radiation shield, and liquid helium supply and return lines. See Figure 1 for details on their specific construction. Line drawings for the solenoid and VLPC transfer lines are shown in Figures 2 and 3, respectively. The transfer line system, as a whole, does not lend itself to simple analysis such as the 'Simplified Method for Flexibility Analysis' or the chart method. These methods demand that the piping system be rigidly anchored at two ends with no intermediate branches. Therefore, a major part of the analysis was performed on the PipePlus v4.5 software package by Algor. Considerations have been given to dead weight, pressure, and thermal loads, boundary conditions such as end displacements, and restraints caused by intermediate supports. The Appendices contain selected information from the PipePlus analysis. Only the pipe geometry, boundary conditions, loading, node displacements and stresses have been reported. The electronic version of the PipePlus databases are stored on the DMACS NT Fileserver under the 'Pipe' directory. These databases can be used to generate the complete reports.

Transfer lines are common in cryogenic systems and are a form of cryostat. This chapter describes the requirements of transfer lines, surveys existing transfer lines and discusses issues such as modularization, routing, supports, thermal contraction, piping arrangement, materials, manufacturing and installation. The chapter concludes with a detailed case study of the design, manufacturing and performance of the XFEL/AMTF transfer line.

The effect of gravity on cryogenic transfer line chilldown performance using pulse flow and low thermally conductive coatings

The MSU-FRIB cryogenic distribution system supports the 2 K primary, 4 K primary, and 35 - 55 K shield operation of more than 70 loads in the accelerator and the experimental areas. It is based on JLab and SNS experience with bayonet-type disconnects between the loads and the distribution system for phased commissioning and maintenance. The linac transfer line, which features three separate transfer line segments for additional independence during phased commissioning at 4 K and 2 K, connects the folded arrangement of 49 cryomodules and 4 superconducting dipole magnets and a fourth transfer line supports the separator area cryo loads. The pressure reliefs for the transfer line process lines, located in the refrigeration room outside the tunnel/accelerator area, are piped to be vented outdoors. The transfer line designs integrate supply and return flow paths into a combined vacuum space. The main linac distribution segments are produced in a small number of standard configurations; a prototype of one such configuration has been fabricated at Jefferson Lab and has been installed at MSU to support testing of a prototype FRIB cryomodule.

At the ESS, a large-scale 20 K helium refrigeration system with a cooling capacity of 30.3 kW at 15 K, which is called Target Moderator CryoPlant (TMCP), has been designed to cool the cryogenic moderator system (CMS) where subcooled liquid hydrogen will be circulated at 1.0 kg/s through four hydrogen moderators where the total nuclear heating is estimated to be 17.2 kW for the proton beam power of 5 MW. The first phase of the TMCP installation and commissioning for the TMCP compressor skids and cold box was completed in 2019. The phase 2 installation of 300 m-long cryogenic helium transfer lines (CTLs) and a valve box located at one end of it in the Target building has been completed in the summer of 2022. Subsequently, the commissioning has been conducted until December 2022. This paper will describe the performance evaluation test results of the CTL heat load and pressure drop, the TMCP cooling capacity, and a test result of a failure action caused by instrument air failure.