Design and Development of Instrumentation and Control System for Cryogenic Helium Purifier Test Facility

Abstract

Helium purifier operate for cold helium at 80k so helium Refrigerator/Liquefier (HRL)require LN2 (liquid nitrogen) for cooling of helium gas below 80k, for this vacuum brazedaluminum plate fin heat exchanger designed at IPR also compressor and turbines will usedto produce cold helium for cryogenic test facility. Here turbine are smaller in size butrotating speed is very high about few lacks rpm (revolution per minute) so it has contactless gas bearing. Due to compressor used in helium liquefier impurities will be there at cooledhelium so helium purifier is designed at IPR. Purifier and heat exchanger are fabricated andmanufactured in india.Cryogenic test facility developing for measuring performance of this heat exchanger,purifier and turbine at high pressure range (1bar-14bar) with closed loop helium circulation.It require to design and implementation of mounting sensors (temperature, pressure, level,flow, speed) and actuator. From that data acquisition andcontrol some variable (pressure,temperature, vacuum) at desire range.This project works includingdesigning of proper measurement of process variable andimplementation of hardware (RTD-pt100, SI diode, Mass flow meter, differential pressuretransmitter, vacuum gauge, and temperature scanner) and alsosoftware (Labview, SimaticS7-300) for data logging and controlling facilities in helium purifier, turbineand heat ex-changer. Also GUI (graphical user interface) display will implement for data monitoring, data display and data recording