Improvement of accumulator in cryogenic hydrogen system used for 1-MW pulsed spallation neutron source

Aso, Tomokazu; Tatsumoto, Hideki*; Otsu, Kiichi*; Kawakami, Yoshihiko*; Komori, Shinji*; Muto, Hideki*; Takada, Hiroshi

JAEA-Technology 2019-013, 77 Pages, 2019/09

JAEA-Technology-2019-013.pdf:5.59MB

At Materials and Life Science experimental Facility (MLF) of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), a 1-MW pulsed spallation neutron source is equipped with a cryogenic hydrogen system which circulates liquid hydrogen (20 K and 1.5 MPa) to convert high energy neutrons generated at a mercury target to cold neutrons at three moderators with removing nuclear heat of 3.8 kW deposited there. The cryogenic system includes an accumulator with a bellows structure in order to absorb pressure fluctuations generated by the nuclear heat deposition in the system. Welded inner bellows of the first accumulator was failured during operation, forcing us to improve the accumulator to have sufficient pressure resistance and longer life-time. We have developed elemental technologies for manufacturing welded bellows of the accumulator by a thick plate with high pressure resistance, succeeding to find optimum welding conditions. We fabricated a prototype bellows block and carried out an endurance test by adding a pressure change of 2 MPa repeatedly. As a result, the prototype bellows was successfully in use exceeding the design life of 10,000 times. Since distortions given during welding and assembling affect functionality and lifetime of the bellows, we set the levelness of each element of the bellows as within 0.1. The improved accumulator has already been in operation for about 25,000 hours as of January 2019, resulting that the number of strokes reached to 16,000. In July 2018, we demonstrated that the accumulator could suppress the pressure fluctuation generated by the 932 kW beam injection as designed. As current operational beam power is 500 kW, the current cryogenic hydrogen system could be applicable for stable operation at higher power in the future.

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.

Control of thermal load on the JT-60 NBI power supply system for 30 second operation

Oshima, Katsumi*; Honda, Atsushi; Okano, Fuminori; Usui, Katsutomi; Noto, Katsuya*; Muto, Hideki*; Kawai, Mikito; Oga, Tokumichi; Ikeda, Yoshitaka

Heisei-16-Nendo Osaka Daigaku Sogo Gijutsu Kenkyukai Hokokushu (CD-ROM), 4 Pages, 2005/03

no abstracts in English

Performance degradation of helium refrigerator for liquid hydrogen circulation system of J-PARC high intensity neutron source; Key points to performance recover and future plan

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

no journal, , 

no abstracts in English

Performance degradation of helium refrigerator for liquid hydrogen circulation system of J-PARC high intensity neutron source; Element test related to increasing differential pressure, which might cause performance degradation

Teshigawara, Makoto; Aso, Tomokazu; Muto, Hideki*; Aoyagi, Katsuhiro*; Takada, Hiroshi; Ikeda, Yujiro

no journal, , 

Performance degradation of helium refrigerator was occurred for liquid hydrogen circulation system of J-PARC high intensity neutron source since 2015. During cause investigation of performance degradation of helium refrigerator, we found out that accumulated oil like coating film on top surface of felt, which was used to hold the active charcoal in adsorber, might cause pressure difference in adsorber. We performed cold nitrogen gas flow test in the felt accumulated oil and found out that frozen oil under cold nitrogen flow caused the pressure difference.

Present status and test result of 1MW proton beam injection of liquid hydrogen circulation system of J-PARC high intensity neutron source

Aso, Tomokazu; Teshigawara, Makoto; Muto, Hideki*; Aoyagi, Katsuhiro*; Takada, Hiroshi

no journal, , 

Liquid hydrogen (20 K, 1.4 MPaG) is employed as a cold neutron moderator material at the 1 MW spallation neutron source of Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). The cryogenic hydrogen system, combined with a helium refrigerator, was adopted to generate a liquid hydrogen circulation flow (185 g/s). Since January 2015, a pressure drop gradually increased between heat exchangers HXs) and an adsorber (ADS) in the helium refrigerator for each operation, causing the refrigerator performance degradation. The performance of helium refrigerator could be recovered as a result of countermeasures focused on accumulated oil removal, such as cleaning the inside HXs and exchanging the ADS at 2016 summer shutdown, however the detailed cause is still in doubt. On the other hand, a long run stable operation could be secured over 175 days in 2018. Just end of long run operation, a first high-intensity-beam injection with 1MW beam power was also carried out for one hour aiming to confirm the refrigerator performance according to design requirement.

Efforts to recover performance of helium refrigerator for cryogenic hydrogen system at MLF

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

no journal, , 

no abstracts in English