An innovative method for helium refrigeration liquefaction utilizing transonic nozzle

Baosheng Chen, Yupei Zeng, Ercang Luo, Nan Peng and Aihong Zou

Energy, 2025, vol. 314, issue C

Abstract: Liquid helium is a quite crucial low-temperature refrigerant in Energy application, especially in situations that require extremely low temperature environments, such as superconducting magnets in particle accelerators. An innovative helium liquefaction method employing a helium transonic two-phase expander is proposed. The key component of the helium transonic two-phase expander is the helium transonic nozzle, in which a numerical investigation by FLUENT is performed on the supersonic condensing flow characteristics of helium. The principal discoveries include: (1) In the supersaturated nucleation region, the nucleation rate and the droplet numbers of helium each grows rapidly to peaks of 2.27 × 1021 m−3 s−1 and 8.04 × 1014 kg−1. (2) When helium condensation transitions into the droplet growth stage, both the droplet radius and liquid-to-gas mass ratio continuously increase, achieving their respective summits of 7.56 × 10−7 m and 12.478 % at the outlet. (3) Three-dimensional simulation calculation of the transonic nozzle is undertaken to verify the feasibility and accuracy of simplifying three-dimensional structures to two-dimensional simulations. The deviation is within 2 %.

Keywords: Helium liquefaction; Helium transonic two-phase expander; Helium transonic nozzle; Spontaneous condensation; Condensing flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:314:y:2025:i:c:s0360544224040611

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.134283

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