Experimental studies of the performance of the heat-shielding layer of composite pipelines during cooling with liquid hydrogen

The development of technology for aircraft and rocket engines more efficient and environmentally friendly cryogenic fuels in the form of liquefied gases: hydrogen (vinyl), oxygen (oxide), natural gas (methane), required the creation of pipelines from modern composite materials, as well as new thermal insulation coatings (TIC), providing reliable protection of these highways from external heat leakage. Fuel out-of-flight manifolds of reusable aircraft require a particularly reliable TIC, since during the operation of the product, their multi-cycle cooling down occurs when pouring cryogenic fuel into the pipelines and heating at the discharge. Thermally insulating coatings in the form of polyurethane foam (PUF), applied to the surface of the protected product, by spraying or pouring a mixture of the constituent components, which are widely used at the present time, are not fully suitable for cryogenic pipelines due to the deterioration of their heat insulating properties in the process of cyclic cooling. The aim of the work is to create a new design and technological solution that ensures the performance of the TIC in the conditions of high-cycle thermal loading. In connection with the prospect of using cryogenic fuels in an aviation (reusable) technology, ensuring the performance of a TIC in such conditions is relevant. For the developed technology, experimental determination of the main parameters of the TIC was carried out. Composite pipelines of curvilinear and rectilinear shape were used as objects of research. The pipeline design included a sealing film sheath, a power sheath made of a polymer composite material, a foam heat insulating coating and metal connecting flanges. On model composite samples of cryogenic pipelines, cyclic tests for cooling with liquid hydrogen (filling of fuel lines) and heating to ambient temperature (draining components) were carried out. During the tests, the pipeline was first cooled with hydrogen gas for one hour. Then, for one hour, liquid hydrogen was poured into the internal cavity, after which natural warming up to a normal temperature was carried out for an hour. The obtained results allowed to determine the dependence of temperature and heat flow of the shell with TIC on the number of cooling cycles, to propose a design and technological solution for a significant reduction of the cryopump at large temperature differences in the TIC, to show the effectiveness of cyclic cooling of foam porosity with closed porosity of the “Vikort-3M”