Introduction to CRYOGENICS

Prof. T. K. Dey
Former Professor of Cryogenic Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur

Lecture No. 1
 Composition of the Course

Cryogenic Techniques Vacuum Techniques

History of Cryogenics

Liquefaction of gases
Vacuum Basics
Towards absolute ZERO
Production of Vacuum
Cryo-thermometry

Cryo-temperature control
Measurement of vacuum
Cryo Level Sensing &
control systems
Various Techniques of
Leak Detection
Cryogenic Safety
 Pre - Newton era: 1561 - 1621
People knew three sources of Heat generation:

1. Sun 2. Fire 3. Warmth of animals

But had NO IDEA of how to produce COLD:

Except NATURE’s COLD in Winter

Time of NEWTON 1642 - 1727
Techniques of producing cold begins:

1. Refrigeration by ICE / SNOW

2. Refrigeration by evaporation

3. Refrigeration by dissolving salt (Sodium

nitrate) in water.
 INCENTIVES for REFRIGERATION began around
Early 19th Century

Need for artificial Refrigeration was felt due to increasing

demand from:

# the butchers # the Brewers # the Industrialists

Ice harvesting

Ice Storage Caves

Refrigerated Rail road

 FIRST COMMERCIAL APPLICATION OF
REFRIGERATION

First MEAT CARGO transported

from Australia to London in a
REFRIGERATED SHIP [6th DEC,
1879 To 2nd February 1880) First ICE MACHINE (1892)
 What is CRYOGENICS……………………… ??
The word “Cryogenics” was derived from the Greek word “KUOS”
(frost) and “GENICS” means "production of very low temperatures".
NBS Colorado have chosen to consider the field of Cryogenics as that
involving temperatures below 123K (-150 C).

Cryogenics is now a days regarded as branch of both physics

and engineering that involves:

study of very low how to produce them How materials behave at

temperatures, those temperatures
their applications

The dividing line between Low Temperature Physics & Cryogenic

Engineering is NOT always very clear. In this area:

Engineers must be familiar Physicists should be familiar

with various phenomena to use with engineering principles in
them effectively at low order to design experiments &
temperatures. apparatus.
 Cryogenic Temperature Range Centre of Hottest Star
Centre of Sun

The importance of Surface of SUN

temperature is usually not
Cryogenic ORGANIC LIFE
fully recognized.
Begins 123K

Superconductivity
The reason probably being
that our life is restricted
to an extremely narrow Dilution
range of temperatures. Refrigerator

K Nuclear Magnetism
This becomes evident if
one looks at Fig. 1, where
temperatures
existing in nature /
accessible in laboratories Lowest Temperature
has been summarized. Achieved
 What Fig. 1 tells us… ??
 The temperatures ranges from ~109 K to ~ 10-12 K, the
lowest temperatures accessible today in laboratories for
various condensed matter physics experiments.

 With all these achievements, low temperature physics has surpassed

nature by several orders of magnitudes.

BECAUSE THE LOWEST TEMPERATURE IN NATURE AND IN

THE UNIVERSE IS ONLY 2.73 K.

“it is actually one of the very few branches of science where

mankind has surpassed nature, an achievement which has
not yet proved possible in other branches of physics”.

A RARE DISTINCTION FOR CRYOGENICS

Fig 1.2 shows the historical development of refrigeration to lower
and lower temperatures.
 Historical Background
1840 In an attempt to relieve the suffering of malaria patients, Dr. John Gorrie, a
Florida based physician, developed an expansion engine for production of ice.

Louis Paul Cailletet, a French mining engineer, produced a fog of oxygen-

1877 droplets by precooling a container filled with Oxygen at 300 atm and allowing it
to expand suddenly through a valve.

1883 Wroblewski and Olszewski, in Poland obtained Liquid oxygen

“boiling in a test tube” and they also liquefied Nitrogen.

1884 Wroblewski obtained a fog of LIQUID HYDROGEN DROPLETS, but

could not liquefy completely.

James Dewar, a chemistry professor in London developed vacuum

jacketed vessel for storing cryogenic fluids. This simple container
1892 played a very significant role in the liquefaction of hydrogen and helium
in bulk quantities.
This quest led to the liquefaction and solidification of hydrogen
by James Dewar (1898). He reached 20K and later 13K.
This left, the last gas in the periodic table (viz., Helium 4 to
be liquefied).
 1895 Linde Company was established in Germany. Today, Linde Co. is one of the
world leaders in Cryogenic Engineering.

1902 Claude, a French engineer developed a expansion engine based air liquefiers.

1908 The Dutch scientist, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, in University of Leiden

won the race to liquefy the last gas at 4.2K. in 1908.

1911 Subsequently, he discovered the phenomenon of Superconductivity by

cooling Hg to liquid He temperatures.

1920 Superfluidity of liquid He4 at 2.2K was discovered by Kammerlingh

Onnes

1926
Something great happened
Dr. Collins at MIT, USA developed an expansion engine
1947
based Helium liquefier. From then on LHe based research
became feasible and fairly economical.

And the quest for low temperatures continued

 Dr. Goddard developed and tested the world’s first cryogenic (liquid Oxygen)
rockets. Such rockets were used by Germans V-2 weapon system during 2nd world
war.

Dr. Robert H. Goddard with his First Goddard with his fourth liquid-fueled rocket
liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket (1926) launched on July 17, 1929.
Dr. Goddard then made his first full scale cryogenic rockets at
Roswell, New Mexico in July, 1930. Photograph shows Dr Goddard
(centre) with his rocket [11 feet long by 12 inches wide and weighing
33.5 pounds]. The test was conducted on December 30, 1930 .
The rocket reached a maximum altitude of 2,000 feet and attained
maximum speed of 500 m.p.h. The rocket employed Cryogenic
Propulsion based on ignition of liquid oxygen and gasoline
mixture into the combustion chamber.

Germans, during Second World War – 2, built their BOMBERS based on Goddard’s
Cryogenic rockets.
 Thrust for achieving lower and lower temperatures went on:

*Onnes reached 0.83K by pumping over a bath of liquid helium 4

1922
** Keesom in 1932 attained 0.71K.

 This was virtually the limit and a fundamentally different

technology was needed for further lowering of temperatures.

Post 1970s Pomeranchuk cooling

Adiabatic Demagnetization of
MilliKelvin Temperature paramagnetic salts
was achieved by:
Dilution Refrigeration

Nuclear adiabatic
demagnetization Microkelvin NanoKelvin

Pico-Kelvin
10-12K
 Medical Science Space Science Defense

Biomagnetism
Rocket Propulsion
Condensed
Space Simulation
Matter
Physics
Superconducting
R&D
Devices
Agriculture-
APPLICATIONS
Preservation of CRYOGENICS Transportation:
Maglev
Gas
Purifications Electronics
Materials
Recycling High Speed
Manufacturing Computation
High Energy Physics Supercomputers
Processes
SOME SELECTED MAJOR
APPLICATIONS OF CRYOGENICS

Aerospace-cryogenic engines

Bio-Medical Field

Electronics

Agriculture-
Preservation
CRYOGENIC ENGINES IN AEROSPACE

The first operational Cryogenic Rocket

Engine is the 1961 NASA design the RL-
10 LOX LH2 rocket engine

Liquid Propulsion System

Centre [LPSC] in
Mahendragiri in Tamil
Nadu is developing India’s
own cryo - engines. The
system involves materials
working at 250 deg below
zero and pumps at speeds of
40,000 rpm. There are also
complex metering,
monitoring, integrating
technologies involved. The Cryogenic Rockets Uses appropriate
engines provides 7 tones of Mixture of Liquid Hydrogen and
thrust.. Liquid Oxygen as Fuel
CRYOGENICS IN Cryosurgery (also called cryo therapy) is the
MEDICAL FIELD use of extreme cold produced by liquid
nitrogen (or argon gas) to destroy abnormal
tissue.
Cryosurgery is used to treat external tumors, such
as those on the skin.
CRYOSURGERY
For internal tumors, liquid nitrogen is circulated
through a hollow instrument called a cryoprobe.
Cryosurgery has been used for many years in the
treatment of skin cancer

BENEFITS OF CRYOSURGERY
Cryosurgery is very effective and is less
expensive and anesthesia is not necessary.
The treatment can be safely used along with
standard treatments such as surgery,
chemotherapy, hormone therapy and
radiation.

It can be used for patients, who are even

not fit for conventional surgery because of
their age or other medical condition.
CRYOGENICS IN ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONICS

SQUIDs for high Sensitivity Magnetometers &

Ultra Low Field Sensor capable to detect Bio-
Magnetic Fields.

Ultra High Speed Ground Transmission:

MAGLEV (Employs Messiner Effect).

Superconducting Magnets, Motors & Generators

In order to satisfy various needs in the above applications,
certain fluids are used to attain the cryogenic temperature
range. The properties of such fluids are discussed in the
following section.

1. Liquid Oxygen

• Blue color liquid.

• Boils at 90.18 K and freezes at 54.4 K.
• Because of its chemical activity, oxygen presents a safety problem in
handling.
• Used in Spaceships & Rocket engines propulsions, medical.

2. Liquid Nitrogen

• Produced commercially by distillation of liquid air.

• Clear, colorless fluid that resembles water in appearance.
• Boils at 77.36 K and freezes at 63.2 K.
• R & D, industries, defense, preservation, etc….
4. Hydrogen

• One of the lightest of all liquids.

• Hydrogen is quite flammable.
• Used in Spaceships & Rocket engines

7. Liquid He4

 Colorless, odorless, inert, non-corrosive, extremely cold, and

nonflammable.
 Normal boiling point …… 4.2K
 Becomes superfluid at 2.17K
 Used for all superconducting devices,
 Cryo-medical Instrumentations, superconducting magnets

8. Liquid He3

• Colorless, odorless, inert, non-corrosive, extremely cold, and

nonflammable. Boiling point . . . . 3.2K
• Becomes superfluid at 1 mK
• R & D activities, Dilution refrigerators etc…
An experimentalist wishing to pursue research at low
temperatures faces 4 major technical difficulties:

How to
How to measure
reach these
temperatures

Safety Aspects
How to reduce the of Cryogenics How to
external heat leak so transfer cold
that low temperatures from one place
could be maintained & to another.
controlled for
sufficiently long time.

Solution to all these major technical aspects forms the

foundation of CRYOGENICS.
 NOBEL PRIZE IN SUPERCONDUCTIVITY & SUPERFLUIDITY

YEAR NAMES CONTRIBUTIONS

1913 Kamerlingh Onnes  Liquefaction of He4,

 discovery of superconductivity,
1962 Landau  Phase transitions in liquid helium

1972 Bardeen, Cooper &  Theory of superconductivity

Schrieffer
1973 • Esaki & Giaever  Tunneling in semiconductors and
superconductors
• David Josephson  Josephson Tunneling
1978 • Kapitsa  Discovery of superfluidity in He-4

1987 Bednorz & Müller  High temperature Superconductors

1996 Lee, Osheroff and  Discovery of superfluidity in He-3

Richardson
 Gaiever
Scientists who contributed immensely towards the
discovery and understanding the subject of
Cryogenics AND Superconductivity

Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer Josephson Müller Bednorz25

 CONCLUSION
Refrigeration and cryogenic cooling technology
share a common history and there are many similarities
in the underlying thermodynamics..

Experimentations & methodology in cryogenics are totally

different.

HOST OF MODERN APPLICATIONS viz., in

SPACE, DEFENSE, MEDICAL, ELECTRONICS,
TRANSPORTATIONS & RESEARCH
CAN NOT BE IMAGINED WITHOUT CRYOGENICS.

ACESS TO ULTRA LOW TEMPERATURES ( MILLI &

MICRO-KELVIN) KEEPS THE DOOR OPEN FOR MANY
NEW WONDERS OF NATURE
 A few high tech devices those needs Cryogenic Temperatures

Simple Superconducting Superconducting magnets

Magnet (8Tesla) for Linear Accelerator Fusion Reactor Sup. Magnet

3 Tesla clinical MRI scanner Superconducting MRI picture of Brain

LARGE SCALE APPLICATIONS

Superconductive Levitated Train

(MAGLEV)
SAPACE SHIP with CRYOGENIC ROCKET ENGINE
 To day

Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes

is considered as “the father of low

temperature physics”.
 Books Recommended

1. Matter and Methods at Low Temperatures (Springer)…. Frank Pobell

2. Experimental Techniques in Low Temperature Physics (Clarendon Press)

G. K. White
3. Low Temperature Solid State Physics (Clarendon Press)…
H. M. Rossenberg
4. Cryogenic Systems (Oxford Univ Press) … R. F. Barron

5. Cryogenic Engineering (CRC Press) … T M Flynn

6. Vacuum Technology (Third Edition) … A. Roth

7. Fundamentals of Vacuum Technology.. Revised & compiled by Dr. Walter

Umrath (Leybold Vacuum, GmBH))