Cryogenic Heat Sink for Helium Gas Cooled Superconducting Power Devices

L. Graber[1], N.G. Suttell[1], D. Shah[1], D.G. Crook[1], C.H. Kim[1], J. Ordonez[1], S. Pamidi[1]
[1]Center for Advanced Power Systems, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Published in 2012

Heat sinks for cryogenic applications using helium gas as the coolant are not readily available. They require to be designed specifically for the intended application. A finite element model was developed to study the feasibility and optimize the design. The FEM computing package COMSOL Multiphysics allowed to couple fluid flow and heat transfer as needed. An experiment was designed to validate the results obtained by numerical simulation. It allowed to measure gas temperature increase and heat sink temperature as a function of gas pressure, coolant inlet conditions and heater power. The results of the finite element model correspond reasonably well with the experiment. The model will be useful to design larger heat sinks for application in actual power system apparatus.