Two-Phase Pipe Quenching Correlations for Liquid Nitrogen and Liquid Hydrogen

Abstract

Recently, two-phase cryogenic flow boiling data in liquid nitrogen (LN2) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) were compared to the most popular two-phase correlations, as well as correlations used in two of the most widely used commercially available thermal/fluid design codes in Hartwig et al. (2016, “Assessment of Existing Two Phase Heat Transfer Coefficient and Critical Heat Flux on Cryogenic Flow Boiling Quenching Experiments,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 93, pp. 441–463). Results uncovered that the correlations performed poorly, with predictions significantly higher than the data. Disparity is primarily due to the fact that most two-phase correlations are based on room temperature fluids, and for the heating configuration, not the quenching configuration. The penalty for such poor predictive tools is higher margin, safety factor, and cost. Before control algorithms for cryogenic transfer systems can be implemented, it is first required to develop a set of low-error, fundamental two-phase heat transfer correlations that match available cryogenic data. This paper presents the background for developing a new set of quenching/chilldown correlations for cryogenic pipe flow on thin, shorter lines, including the results of an exhaustive literature review of 61 sources. New correlations are presented which are based on the consolidated database of 79,915 quenching points for a 1.27 cm diameter line, covering a wide range of inlet subcooling, mass flux, pressure, equilibrium quality, flow direction, and even gravity level. Functional forms are presented for LN2 and LH2 chilldown correlations, including film, transition, and nucleate boiling, critical heat flux, and the Leidenfrost point.