Thermal design analysis of a liquid hydrogen vessel

Thermal analysis has been performed to design a high-performance liquid hyd rogen (LH2) vessel. Analysis includes the combined insulation of multi-laye r insulation (MLI) and vapor-cooled radiation shield (VCS) under high vacuu m. Three types of combined insulation schemes are considered in this study; fully-filled MLI and serial-type double vapor-cooled radiation shield (DVC S); fully-filled MLI and parallel-type DVCS; partially-filled MLI and singl e vapor-cooled radiation shield (SVCS). Thermal analysis for a vapor-cooled heat station to reduce solid conduction heat in-leak through a filling tub e is also made. The results indicate that the serial-type DVCS vessel shows better performance than parallel-type DVCS vessel. The combined insulation of SVCS and partially-filled MLI shows a similar performance compared to t hat of DVCS and fully-filled MLI. The vapor-cooled heat stations can enhanc e substantially the performance of the vessel for cryogenic fluids with hig h C-p/h(fg), where C-p the specific heat and h(fg) the latent heat of vapor ization, such as LH2 and liquid helium (LHe). (C) 1999 International Associ ation for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.