John Wyman Dean
Engineers in Los Alamos, NM

4020274, Apr 26, 1977

Jan 27, 1976

5/649887

John W. Dean - Los Alamos NM

The United States of America as represented by the United States Energy
Research and Development Administration - Washington DC

H01B 1200

174 15S

Thermally contacting, oppositely streaming cryogenic fluid streams in the same enclosure in a closed cycle that changes from a cool high pressure helium gas to a cooler reduced pressure helium fluid comprised of a mixture of gas and boiling liquid so as to be near the same temperature but at different pressures respectively in go and return legs that are in thermal contact with each other and in thermal contact with a longitudinally extending superconducting transmission line enclosed in the same cable enclosure that insulates the line from the ambient at a temperature T. sub. 1. By first circulating the fluid in a go leg from a refrigerator at one end of the line as a high pressure helium gas near the normal boiling temperature of helium; then circulating the gas through an expander at the other end of the line where the gas becomes a mixture of reduced pressure gas and boiling liquid at its boiling temperature; then by circulating the mixture in a return leg that is separated from but in thermal contact with the gas in the go leg and in the same enclosure therewith; and finally returning the resulting low pressure gas to the refrigerator for compression into a high pressure gas at T. sub. 2 is a closed cycle, where T. sub. 1 >T. sub. 2, the temperature distribution is such that the line temperature is nearly constant along its length from the refrigerator to the expander due to the boiling of the liquid in the mixture.

4020275, Apr 26, 1977

Jan 27, 1976

5/649888

John W. Dean - Los Alamos NM

The United States of America as represented by the United States Energy
Research and Development Administration - Washington DC

H01B 1200

174 15S

Thermally contacting, oppositely streaming, cryogenic fluid streams in the same enclosure in a closed cycle that changes the fluid from a cool high pressure helium gas to a cooler reduced pressure helium gas in an expander so as to be at different temperature ranges and pressures respectively in go and return legs that are in thermal contact with each other and in thermal contact with a longitudinally extending superconducting transmission line enclosed in the same cable enclosure that insulates the line from the ambient at a temperature T. sub. 1. By first circulating the fluid from a refrigerator at one end of the line as a cool gas at a temperature range T. sub. 2 to T. sub. 3 in the go leg, then circulating the gas through an expander at the other end of the line where the gas becomes a cooler gas at a reduced pressure and at a reduced temperature T. sub. 4 and finally by circulating the cooler gas back again to the refrigerator in a return leg at a temperature range T. sub. 4 to T. sub. 5, while in thermal contact with the gas in the go leg, and in the same enclosure therewith for compression into a higher pressure gas at T. sub.