Cooling system optimization of cryogenic propellant storage on lunar surface

•Cryogenic propellant storage was proposed for ISRU on the lunar or Martian surfaces.•Boil-off gas tube and cryocooler coolant loop were installed between MLI layers.•Optimization study found Pareto front of boil-off rate and cooling system mass.•3-D simulation revealed effects of temperature nonuni...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cryogenics (Guildford) 2022-06, Vol.124, p.103494, Article 103494
Main Authors: Kinefuchi, Kiyoshi, Miyakita, Takeshi, Umemura, Yutaka, Nakajima, Jun, Koga, Masaru
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cooling systems
Cryogenic cooling
Cryogenic propellant storage
Electric contacts
Flow velocity
Gas flow
In-situ resource utilization
Interlayers
Lunar exploration
Lunar surface
Multilayers
Nonuniformity
Optimization
Power consumption
Propellant storage
Temperature effects
Thermal analysis
Three dimensional models
Tubes
Weight reduction
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Summary:•Cryogenic propellant storage was proposed for ISRU on the lunar or Martian surfaces.•Boil-off gas tube and cryocooler coolant loop were installed between MLI layers.•Optimization study found Pareto front of boil-off rate and cooling system mass.•3-D simulation revealed effects of temperature nonuniformity and tube Nu number.•Proposed concept is well-balanced in terms of boil-off rate and system mass. A cooling system using a cryocooler and boil-off gas was proposed for cryogenic propellant storage on the lunar surface. The cryogenic tank was covered with an advanced non-interlayer-contact multi-layer-insulation and coolant from the cryocooler and boil-off gas flow in the layers to remove the heat load. The proposed system included optimization factors for fluid tubes location, cryocooler temperature, and flow rate. A simple uniform-temperature thermal model was developed to optimize boil-off rates and system weights, and the results revealed a Pareto front. A three-dimensional model was developed to discuss the effect of temperature nonuniformity. Finally, the proposed concept was compared to other candidates. The results showed that the proposed system offered a well-balanced system in terms of boil-off rate, system mass, and electric power consumption, which drastically reduced the boil-off rate when compared to only multi-layer insulations, which reduced the weight and power consumptions as compared to zero-boil-off systems.
ISSN:0011-2275
1879-2235
DOI:10.1016/j.cryogenics.2022.103494