Design, Construction, and Testing of a Helium-to-Hydrogen Heat Exchanger

Abstract

This paper describes some of the design, construction, and test work which was undertaken to develop a helium-to-hydrogen heat exchanger. Hydrogen is a potentially important fuel for certain propulsive and secondary power applications where low molecular weight and high heat of combustion are important. In many possible airborne system applications, hydrogen is stored at cryogenic temperatures and heated in a heat exchanger before being burned to produce energy. If the heat source is one or several items of equipment which require cooling, use of an intermediate heat transfer loop is indicated. A logical intermediate heat transfer fluid is helium, because of the absence of freezing or condensation at liquid-hydrogen temperatures. This is the background for the present work. The problem statement numbers were evolved from an airbreathing engine design study, but the technology is applicable to the presently more interesting nonairbreathing secondary power devices as well.

The work was conducted for the Power Plant Laboratory, Wright Air Development Center, Air Research and Development Command, United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, under Contract AF33(600)-34222, Project Number 7-(l-3099)-30304. A complete summary of all work on the project may be found in WADC Technical Report 59-422.