Control System Development for A Zero Boil-Off Hydrogen Storage Demonstration With Two-Stage Active Cooling

A NASA team is designing and building a test article to demonstrate the long duration storage of liquid hydrogen via active cooling (cryocoolers) while implementing a two-stage cooling approach. This activity is one of a large portfolio of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate funded activities which focuses on the technology maturation needed for long duration storage of cryogenic liquid in-space. The current state-of-the-art for liquid hydrogen storage on-orbit is on the order of hours while NASA’s planned missions require storage for months, or even years. To enable such a long duration, Zero Boil-Off conditions must be achieved which requires passive technologies to minimize environmental heat loads, but also active cooling to intercept and reject the remaining heat to deep space. The implementation of active cooling results in a significant amount of dry mass added to the vehicle. Utilizing a Two-Stage Cooling approach, analysis and testing to date indicates the Zero Boil-Off of liquid hydrogen can be achieved with less mass and electrical power relative to a single-stage cooling approach where only one cryocooler is used. This activity will demonstrate the fully integrated suite of technologies needed to enable the Two-Stage Cooling approach which includes Multi-Layer Insulation blankets, Low Conductivity Structures, a Tube-On-Tank Heat Exchanger, Tube-On-Shield Heat Exchanger and a Two-Stage Cryogenerator (both 90 Kelvin and 20 Kelvin) with each stage having an independently controlled circulation loop. The bulk of the heat load is intercepted by the 90 Kelvin loop via a thin foil heat exchanger internal to the insulation blankets (also known as a Broad Area Cooling Shield), with the remainder removed at cryofluid temperature (20 Kelvin) by tubes directly welded to the outer tank surface. In this paper, we examine the challenges of controlling the system, and describe the development of control algorithms and software for future testing with liquid hydrogen. The interactions between the cryofans which control circulation loop mass flow rates, electrical heaters which vary the cryocooler lift to simulate the operation of variable-lift flight units, tank heaters which can vary the overall heat load, and the effects of changes in circulation loop pressure as temperatures change, can be complex and must be well understood to maintain steady-state propellant conditions and achieve Zero Boil-Off. Parallel PID loops and watchdog programs implemented on the user interface system will help bring the systems to steady state operation and keep them at selected operating points within acceptable error, while avoiding runaway feedback loops.