Design of Muon Campus full flow purifier for varying operational conditions and horizontal shipping

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and analysis of a full flow helium purifier for Muon Campus, capable of operating under varying conditions and being shipped horizontally, to improve impurity removal efficiency and system reliability.

Contribution

A novel full flow helium purifier design with adaptable operation and shipping features, including thermal expansion considerations and structural analysis via FEA.

Findings

Purifier effectively handles 240 g/s helium throughput.

FEA confirms structural integrity across operational and shipping conditions.

Design accommodates thermal expansion and contraction in various environments.

Abstract

Constant ingress of impurities in Muon Campus g-2 experiment at Fermilab has resulted in reduction of efficiency of cryogenic expanders and occasional undesired downtime to flush the impurities. Due to insufficiency of current 60 g/s mobile purifier, a full flow purifier is designed to be used in Muon Campus which purifies 240 g/s of Helium throughput of 4 compressors through charcoal bed at 80 K and returns ambient Helium back to the system. The purifier is designed to be operated near liquid Nitrogen temperature during cold operations and up to 400 K during regeneration. Both warm and cold operational range of the purifier has required use of appropriate clearances in design due to expansion and contraction. The vessel of around 16 ft height which is designed to be operated vertically is to be shipped horizontally. The asymmetrical position of heavy stainless steel heat exchanger in the purifier support frame and 5g vertical load design consideration for shipping has required use of shipping supports and heat exchanger rotational stops to comply with design requirements. FEA of purifier system is performed in cold, warm and shipping cases to verify that the purifier satisfies the design requirements.