Cryogenic System for the Large Helical Device

The Helium Refrigerator/Liquefier for Large Helical Device

Abstract

A large-scale helium refrigerator/liquefier has been developed to provide reliable and safe operation for the Large Helical Device (LHD). The refrigerator is required to satisfy four different types of cooling methods: forced-flow supercritical helium, a pool boiling method, two-phase helium flow and forced-flow low-temperature (40-80K) helium gas. The forced-flow supercritical helium is widely used in modern large-scale superconducting magnets. This method requires a much more complex refrigeration system than does pool boiling because of the circulation of low-temperature helium within a very long cooling path. The overall refrigeration system is fairly complicated because of these multi-refrigeration requirements. As a matter of fact, it is not likely to find this type of refrigeration plant in the world. The helium refrigerator has a total refrigeration capacity of 5.65kW at 4.4K and 20.6kW at 80K and 650l/h liquefaction. The refrigerator was designed to have high processing efficiency since the construction expense is much less than the operating cost. In order to achieve this, the refrigerator has two precooling cycles (300 to 80K and 80 to 20K) and has two turboexpanders running in parallel with different temperature levels at the cold end. To achieve a high mass flow rate in a low-temperature regime, eight screw-type compressors are operated at room temperature. There are two compressor groups, group A and group B, to reduce the overall work load. Each group consists of 1st and 2nd stage compression processes. The total mass flow rate becomes 960g/s at 1.864MPa. This article reviews the basic chracteristics of a 10kW class helium refrigerator/liquefier and a simple refrigeration cycle.