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Main Authors: Aasen, Ailo, Blakseth, Sindre Stenen, Massing, André, Nekså, Petter, Gjennestad, Magnus Aa.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18451
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author Aasen, Ailo
Blakseth, Sindre Stenen
Massing, André
Nekså, Petter
Gjennestad, Magnus Aa.
author_facet Aasen, Ailo
Blakseth, Sindre Stenen
Massing, André
Nekså, Petter
Gjennestad, Magnus Aa.
contents The design of cryogenic liquid storage solutions requires accurate methods for estimating heat ingress, from the material level to the tank level. For insulation materials, thermal performance is usually measured using ambient conditions and liquid nitrogen at 77 K as boundary temperatures. A key question is how much heat ingress increases when storing liquid hydrogen LH$_2$ at 20 K. We derive theoretical bounds on the increased heat ingress, and show that it remains below 26%. Additionally, we demonstrate that heat ingress is much more sensitive to the warm boundary temperature than the cold boundary temperature. At the tank level, we compare two methods for assessing the steady-state thermal performance of cryogenic tanks: thermal network models and the heat equation solved with the finite element method. The latter offers high accuracy and adaptability for complex geometries, while thermal network models benefit from simplicity, speed and robustness. We apply both approaches to a self-supported LH$_2$ tank concept for maritime transport and analyze sensitivity to structural support thickness, warm boundary temperature, and choice of insulation material. The thermal network model can estimate heat ingress with $\sim$1% error and the cold-spot temperature with error less than 1 K.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_18451
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thermal performance estimation for cryogenic storage tanks: Application to liquid hydrogen
Aasen, Ailo
Blakseth, Sindre Stenen
Massing, André
Nekså, Petter
Gjennestad, Magnus Aa.
Applied Physics
The design of cryogenic liquid storage solutions requires accurate methods for estimating heat ingress, from the material level to the tank level. For insulation materials, thermal performance is usually measured using ambient conditions and liquid nitrogen at 77 K as boundary temperatures. A key question is how much heat ingress increases when storing liquid hydrogen LH$_2$ at 20 K. We derive theoretical bounds on the increased heat ingress, and show that it remains below 26%. Additionally, we demonstrate that heat ingress is much more sensitive to the warm boundary temperature than the cold boundary temperature. At the tank level, we compare two methods for assessing the steady-state thermal performance of cryogenic tanks: thermal network models and the heat equation solved with the finite element method. The latter offers high accuracy and adaptability for complex geometries, while thermal network models benefit from simplicity, speed and robustness. We apply both approaches to a self-supported LH$_2$ tank concept for maritime transport and analyze sensitivity to structural support thickness, warm boundary temperature, and choice of insulation material. The thermal network model can estimate heat ingress with $\sim$1% error and the cold-spot temperature with error less than 1 K.
title Thermal performance estimation for cryogenic storage tanks: Application to liquid hydrogen
topic Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.18451