Advanced 10 Kelvin Cryogenic Cooling Component Technology

A conterflow heat exchanger operating between 6 and 70 K will be fabricated to transfer approximately 70 W between counterflowing streams of helium with an effectiveness exceeding 99.6%. The pressures of the two helium streams will be 1.4 and 1.0 atmospheres. Design specifications for the heat exchanger are as follows: i) Will sustain 30 g acceleration in any axis ii) Burst pressure of the heat exchanger channels must equal 7 atmospheres respectively, and the total fractional pressure drop will be less than .015. iii) The volume of the heat exchanger will be 12 cm x 12 cm x 40 cm. iv) The manufacturing approach should greatly reduce cost. Mezzo International Technologies specializes in fabricating advanced, high performance heat exchangers for the Navy, MDA, and commercial companies. Most of these heat exchangers are of a cross flow configuration, but a minor modification to the design makes it possible to build counterflow heat exchangers with the excellent performance specifications listed above. The Phase I effort will characterize the effectiveness of a single module (a total of three modules, in series, would comprise the actual final product that will be built in the Phase II effort).