Investigation and measures of abnormal events of helium refrigerator for cryogenic hydrogen system at J-PARC

Aso, Tomokazu; Teshigawara, Makoto; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Aoyagi, Katsuhiro*; Muto, Hideki*; Nomura, Kazutaka*; Takada, Hiroshi; Ikeda, Yujiro

JAEA-Technology 2017-021, 75 Pages, 2017/08

JAEA-Technology-2017-021.pdf:33.03MB

Liquid hydrogen is employed as a cold neutron moderator material at the spallation neutron source of Materials and Life science experimental Facility of Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). From January 2015, it became observable that the differential pressure between heat exchangers and an 80 K adsorber (ADS) in a helium refrigerator system increased with operating time. In November 2015, the differential pressure rise became more significant, leading to degrade the refrigerating performance in cooling liquid hydrogen. In order to investigate the cause of the abnormal differential pressure rise between the heat exchangers and the ADS, we carried out visual inspection inside the heat exchangers and analyzed the impurities contained in the helium gas. Unfortunately, we could not identify the impurities causing the performance degradation, but observed a trace of oil in the inlet piping of the heat exchanger. Based on investigations of the abnormal events occurred in the refrigerators with similar refrigerating capacity at other facilities, we took measures that cleaning the heat exchangers with Freon and replacing the ADS with new one. As a result, the differential pressure rise phenomenon was removed to recover the performance. We have detected oil from the Freon used for cleaning the heat exchangers and at a felt supporting charcoal packed in the ADS. In particular, oil was accumulated in membranous form onto the felt at the entrance side in the ADS. The amount of oil contained in the helium gas was about 10 ppb or so, less than the design value, in the helium refrigerator. However, the oil accumulated onto the felt in the ADS through long operating period may cause abnormal differential pressure rise, leading to the performance degradation of the helium refrigerator. Further study is needed to specify the cause more clearly.

Numerical analysis for heat transfer from a Cd poison in cryogenic hydrogen

Tatsumoto, Hideki; Kato, Takashi; Aso, Tomokazu; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Ushijima, Isamu*; Otsu, Kiichi*; Ikeda, Yujiro

LA-UR-06-3904, Vol.2, p.426 - 434, 2006/06

In JSNS, Cadmium has been selected as a poison material in a hydrogen moderator to obtain narrow neutron pulse. The concern to adopt to Cd is how to bond Cd and Al alloy plate. R&Ds for bonding have been performed. But good bonding has not been obtained. Consequently, heat transfer between Cd poison and cryogenic hydrogen was studied for the case of insufficient bonding. The heat transfers for various bonding ratios were analyzed by CFD code (STAR-CD) without any turbulence model. The temperature rise in Cd poison for insufficient bonding was estimated. As a result, even the case of the bonding ratio of only 5 %, the maximum temperature of Cd is around 75K. Therefore, the expected heat transfer between the Cd poison and the hydrogen should be sufficient for insufficient bonding. Then, it is found that the any bonding method should be available for manufacturing method of Cd poison.

Optimization of coupled and decoupled hydrogen moderators for a short-pulse spallation source

Watanabe, Noboru; Harada, Masahide; Kai, Tetsuya; Teshigawara, Makoto; Ikeda, Yujiro

Journal of Neutron Research, 11(1-2), p.13 - 23, 2003/03

https://doi.org/10.1080/1023816031000100879

no abstracts in English

Optimization study of coupled hydrogen moderator with extended premoderator

Kai, Tetsuya; Teshigawara, Makoto; Watanabe, Noboru; Harada, Masahide; Sakata, Hideaki*; Ikeda, Yujiro

JAERI-Conf 2001-002, p.786 - 792, 2001/03

https://jopss.jaea.go.jp/pdfdata/JAERI-Conf-2001-002-Part2.pdf

no abstracts in English

Optimization of decoupled hydrogen moderator

Harada, Masahide; Teshigawara, Makoto; Kai, Tetsuya; Sakata, Hideaki*; Watanabe, Noboru; Ikeda, Yujiro

JAERI-Conf 2001-002, p.793 - 807, 2001/03

https://jopss.jaea.go.jp/pdfdata/JAERI-Conf-2001-002-Part2.pdf

no abstracts in English