Category: Lab

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Lab

LAr-GAr Heat Exchange Test Setup

These are the gas components for a setup to test the liquefaction rate of pressurised argon gas when cooled by liquid argon at atmospheric pressure in an open tube heat exchanger. The gas components sit on top of an open Dewar flask, the heat exchanger will be immersed in the liquid below. Not bad for a one-day job with components I found in the lab and a little bit of DIY work, no?

The goal of the test is to determine the optimal geometry and the required exchange surface for the heat exchanger in the DS-20k cryostat. This heat exchanger will be necessary to boil off argon gas on the return site at a high rate for gas purification, and to liquefy the purified gas on the supply site.

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Lab

Installation Work at NP04

These days, I am working again at the Neutrino Platform at the Prevessin Site. I am preparing a PIN diode box with LED illumination for a cold test which was shipped from my colleagues at Hawai’i.

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Lab

Camera for Cryo-Test

This is the camera assembly that I quickly designed for the cryo-test. The off-the-shelf webcam is mounted inside an acrylic dome which is kept warm by a constant supply of warm GAr. A rotary feedthrough allows to look around during operation. It provides us with a view of the inside of the cryostat which is important to benchmark the evaporation performance of the heat exchanger assembly.

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Lab

Work at NP04

These days I have some cable installation work at ProtoDUNE-SP on the agenda. The picture was taken inside the cryostat. This is a very impressive facility!

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Lab

Cryo-Test Preparation

We are preparing the next benchmarking test of the DS-20k cryogenic setup. This includes the modification of a valve on the nitrogen vent that controls the cooling power based on the cryostat pressure – a fully mechanical and failsafe emergency cooling loop. The opening pressure can now be set by adjusting the counteracting spring force.