Thermal test of the insulation structure for LH2 tank by using the large experimental apparatus Original Research Article

Conceptual designs of large mass LH2 (liquid hydrogen) storage systems, whose capacity is 50,000 m3, have been studied in the Japanese hydrogen project, World Energy Network (WE-NET) [K. Fukuda, in: WE-NET Hydrogen Energy Symposium, 1999, P1–P41]. This study has concluded that their thermal insulation structures for the huge LH2 tanks should be developed. Their actual insulation structures comprise not only the insulation material but also reinforced members and joints. To evaluate their thermal performance correctly, a large test specimen including reinforced members and joints will be necessary. After verifying the thermal performance of a developed large experimental apparatus [S. Kamiya, Cryogenics 40 (1) (2000) 35] for measuring the thermal conductance of various insulation structures, we tested two specimens, a vacuum multilayer insulation (MLI) with a glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) support and a vacuum solid insulation (microtherm®) with joints. The thermal background test for verifying the thermal design of the experimental apparatus showed that the background heat leak is 0.1 W, small enough to satisfy apparatus performance requirement. The thermal conductance measurements of specimens also showed that thermal heat fluxes of MLI with a GFRP support and microtherm® are 8 and 5.4 W/m2, respectively.