Simplified Methodology to Estimate the Maximum Liquid Helium (LHe) Cryostat Pressure from a Vacuum Jacket Failure

The aircraft-based Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a platform for multiple infrared astronomical observation experiments. These experiments carry sensors cooled to liquid helium temperatures. The liquid helium supply is contained in large (i.e., 10 liters or more) vacuum-insulated dewars. Should the dewar vacuum insulation fail, the inrushing air will condense and freeze on the dewar wall, resulting in a large heat flux on the dewar's contents. The heat flux results in a rise in pressure and the actuation of the dewar pressure relief system. A previous NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) assessment provided recommendations for the wall heat flux that would be expected from a loss of vacuum and detailed an appropriate method to use in calculating the maximum pressure that would occur in a loss of vacuum event. This method involved building a detailed supercritical helium compressible flow thermal/fluid model of the vent stack and exercising the model over the appropriate range of parameters. The experimenters designing science instruments for SOFIA are not experts in compressible supercritical flows and do not generally have access to the thermal/fluid modeling packages that are required to build detailed models of the vent stacks. Therefore, the SOFIA Program engaged the NESC to develop a simplified methodology to estimate the maximum pressure in a liquid helium dewar after the loss of vacuum insulation. The method would allow the university-based science instrument development teams to conservatively determine the cryostat's vent neck sizing during preliminary design of new SOFIA Science Instruments. This report details the development of the simplified method, the method itself, and the limits of its applicability. The simplified methodology provides an estimate of the dewar pressure after a loss of vacuum insulation that can be used for the initial design of the liquid helium dewar vent stacks. However, since it is not an exact tool, final verification of the dewar pressure vessel design requires a complete, detailed real fluid compressible flow model of the vent stack.

The wall heat flux resulting from a loss of vacuum insulation increases the dewar pressure,
which actuates the pressure relief mechanism and results in high-speed flow through the dewar
vent stack. At high pressures, the flow can be choked at the vent stack inlet, at the exit, or at an
intermediate transition or restriction.
During previous SOFIA analyses, it was observed that there was generally a readily identifiable
section of the vent stack that would limit the flow – e.g., a small diameter entrance or an orifice.
It was also found that when the supercritical helium was approximated as an ideal gas at the
dewar condition, the calculated mass flow rate based on choking at the limiting entrance or
transition was less than the mass flow rate calculated using the detailed real fluid model2. Using
this lower mass flow rate would yield a conservative prediction of the dewar’s wall heat flux
capability. The simplified method of the current work was developed by building on this
observation.