Cryogenic flow behavior in porous media with experimental approach

Abstract

When applied to transportation, cryogenic technology uses the efficiency of volume reduction due to gas liquefaction. Much research is underway with the technology expanding to applications for defense and medicine. To use cryogenic technology, an understanding of the entire system, including that of the behavior of cryogenic fluids and the related heat transfer, is essential. In this study, experiments were conducted to investigate the behavior of a cryogenic fluid in a porous medium, which is widely used in cryogenic systems. Results showed that the pressure distribution in the porous medium was nonlinear with a positive curvature. By introducing a mass sink term in the mass conservation equation, this pressure distribution could be explained. In contrast, the pressure distribution in porous media under saturated flow conditions is constant.