Development of a cryogenic heat exchanger

In the period December 1994 to July 1996 a cryogenic heat exchanger has been developped, by Microtecnica, under a direct contract to ESA/CNES. The heat exchanger has been designed to pre-warm liquid oxygen using HFC-R134a. The main taskswere the trade-off of the thermal path concept, the definition of the structural configuration, the selection of manufacturing methods and the component testing. Two test benches have been realized for the circulation of the oxygen (by AirLiquide) and for the circulation of the HFC-R134a. No mechanical failures or thermodynamic malfunctions have been encountered during all the test campaign. The performances are applicable for fuel cells and manned systems.