Curved Tank Cooling Tubes for Precise Cryogenic Heat Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fabricating a heat exchange system with tubing on a curved tank is challenging due to difficulties in maintaining thermal contact and avoiding expensive, time-consuming fabrication methods, particularly for cryogenic propellants like liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
Innovation Solution
A system using spacers and bridge brackets with adjustable setscrews to precisely position cooling tubes on the tank surface, followed by bending the tubing to match the curvature, and securing it with cryogenic adhesive, ensuring optimal thermal contact without overstressing materials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If tubing is placed on a curved tank surface using conventional methods, then the fabrication process is simple, but the tubing cannot maintain full thermal contact with the tank surface
Solution Approach 1:
The tank surface is divided into multiple zones with different curvature radii. Tubing sections are correspondingly segmented and bent to match each zone's specific curvature, allowing full thermal contact across the entire tank surface while avoiding complex global fabrication processes.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of tubing are given different curvature characteristics matched to their specific location on the tank. Each tubing section has locally optimized geometry to conform to the underlying tank curvature, ensuring maximum thermal contact at each location rather than using uniform tubing throughout.
2Reliability
If expensive fabrication steps like welding or brazing are used to secure tubing, then the tubing is firmly attached, but the process becomes time-consuming and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The tubing is pre-bent to match the tank's curvature before installation. This preliminary shaping ensures that when the tubing is placed on the tank, it naturally conforms to the surface geometry, requiring minimal additional fabrication steps like welding or brazing to secure it in place.
Solution Approach 2:
A curvature-matched intermediate form is created in the tubing itself, which acts as a mediator between the tubing and the tank surface. This pre-formed curvature enables direct contact and simplifies the attachment process, reducing reliance on time-consuming welding or brazing operations.
3Manufacturing precision
If full lengths of tubing are used to maintain thermal contact, then heat transfer efficiency improves, but the difficulty of placing and positioning the tubing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous tubing is divided into multiple sections, each bent to match the curvature of its specific tank zone. This segmentation makes the tubing sections more manageable and easier to position and install while maintaining continuous thermal contact through the segmented structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Each tubing section is locally customized with the specific curvature needed for its installation location. This local optimization makes each section easier to handle and install while ensuring optimal thermal contact at that specific location, balancing continuity of heat transfer with installation ease.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Achieves effective heat transfer by maximizing surface area contact between tubing and tank, improving the heat exchange system's performance while avoiding material disruption and cost, and ensuring precise fitment.
Implementation Method 1
tubing that carries a coolant... to keep such propellants cool and in their liquid state
Data Source
AI summary
A heat exchange system includes cooling tubes that carry coolant and are placed on an external surface of a storage tank, which may be spherical, cylindrical, or other shape. The storage tank may be a cryogenic rocket fuel tank. The cooling tubes are bent to particular radius of curvatures that correspond to the varying curvatures of the storage tank. A network of spacers and bridge brackets with adjustable setscrews are used to precisely place the cooling tubes in correct positions on the external surface of the storage tank. Once placed in the desired position, the setscrews are adjusted to maximize the surface area contact between the cooling tubes and the exterior surface of the storage tank, resulting in optimal heat transfer without overstressing the materials of the tubing or the storage tank. The precisely positioned tubes may then be permanently affixed to the exterior surface of the storage tank using a cryogenic adhesive.