Dans un contexte de besoin grandissant en précision dans la mesure des faibles courants pour les instituts nationaux de métrologie, l’industrie, les fabricants d’instruments et la physique fondamentale, l’étude des dispositifs à un électron (SET) capables de générer un courant continu directement proportionnel à une fréquence et la charge élémentaire, couplés à un amplificateur de courant très performant, le comparateur cryogénique de courant (CCC), devient pertinente pour réaliser un étalon quantique de courant. Dans ce contexte, les travaux ont été poursuivis au LNE sur l’étude de nouveaux dispositifs SET et le développement de nouveaux CCC. Durant cette thèse, un montage expérimental a été mis en place afin d’évaluer les performances d’un nouveau CCC, constitué d’une conception originale et de 30 000 tours. Les résultats expérimentaux obtenus sont satisfaisant par rapport aux objectifs fixés, que ce soit en termes de résolution en courant, d’erreurs, de stabilité des mesures et de reproductibilité. Le CCC développé durant la thèse peut donc être utilisé pour quantifier de manière métrologique les dispositifs à un électron. De plus, une modélisation réalisée à partir d’un schéma électrique équivalent a été mis en place afin de simuler le comportement réel du CCC en prenant en compte les aspects magnétiques et électriques mis en jeu. Cette simulation a permis la quantification de l’erreur due aux fuites de courants au travers des capacités parasites entourant les enroulements. Les résultats de la simulation indiquent que cette erreur atteint 10 10 à la fréquence de travail, ce qui est inférieure de deux ordres de grandeurs à l’erreur maximale tolérable : 10-8. Les résultats expérimentaux et de modélisation fournissent de nouveaux éléments d’amélioration de la conception de CCCs de grand gain. Enfin, la modélisation développée, une fois insérée dans une routine d’optimisation, pourra aussi être un outil de conception des CCCs très utile. / In a context of growing need of precision in measuring low currents for national metrology institutes, industry, instrument manufacturers and fundamental physics, study of single-electron tunneling (SET) devices capable of generating a direct current directly proportional to the frequency and the elementary charge, coupled with a high performance current amplifier, the cryogenic current comparator (CCC), becomes relevant to realize a quantum current standard. In this framework, at LNE, study of new SET devices and the development of CCCs continues. In this thesis, an experimental setup was implemented to evaluate the performance of a new CCC, consisting of a new design and 30 000 turns. The experimental results fulfill our goals, whether in terms of current resolution, errors, measurement stability and reproducibility. The CCC developed during the thesis can thus be used to metrologically quantify SET devices. In addition, a model based on an equivalent circuit diagram has been developed to simulate the actual behavior of the CCC, taking into account the magnetic and electrical aspects involved. This simulation allows the quantification of the error due to currents leakage through parasitic capacitances surrounding the windings. Results of the simulation indicate that this error reaches 10 10, which is less, by two orders of magnitude, than the maximum tolerable error: 10 8. Results obtained experimentally and by simulation provide new improvement elements in the design of high ratio CCCs. The developed model, once inserted into an optimization routine, can also be a very useful design tool of CCCs.

Kemcyklisk förbränning (CLC) involverar en icke komplex separation av den bildade koldioxiden (CO2) efter förbränningen eftersom syret (O2) överförs till bränslet via en syrebärare som cirkulerar mellan luft- och bränslereaktorn. Eftersom O2 separeras effektivt från kvävgasen (N2) i luftreaktorn, erhålls en produkt gas som till majoriteten består av CO2 och vatten (H2O). Detta resulterar således i mindre komplexa och energi-krävande rökgasreningssystem. Vid förbränning av biomassa inom kemcyklisk förbränning kan negativa CO2 utsläpp erhållas om den producerade CO2 gasen infångas och slutförvaras exempelvis i geologiska formationer. Den infångade CO2 gasen måste för att uppfylla stringenta reningskrav för att undvika diverse konsekvenser relaterade till transportkedjan och slutförvaringen. Förutom CO2 och H2O, kommer den genererade rökgasen från CLC innehålla mindre mängder av biprodukter som kväveoxider (NOx), svaveloxider (SOx) och övriga kontaminanter som behöver att reduceras ned till ppm nivåer för att möta reningskravet på CO2 gasen. På grund av en ofullständig förbränning i CLC erfordras en efterförbränningskammare med en extern tillsats av O2 för att uppnå en fullständig förbränning. Det kan därför förväntas att överskotts-O2 kommer att finnas i den utgående gasen efter post oxidationskammaren, som också behöver att renas ned till ppm koncentrationer. De föreslagna rökgasreningssystemen efter CLC involverar de mest konventionella rökgasreningssystem använda inom industrin idag. Till dessa tillhör bland annat elektrofilter (ESP), våt rökgasavsvavling (WFGD), selektiv katalytisk reduktion (SCR) och selektiv icke-katalytisk reduktion (SNCR) för kväveoxireducering. Två kylnings och CO2 förvätskningstekniker diskuteras i detta arbete: den förkylda Linde Hampson systemet och det kryogena destillationssystemet. Ett rökgasreningssystem har föreslagits för varje förvätskningsteknik. Bland de två föreslagna reningssystemen, enbart scenario 2 uppfyllde Northern Lights kravspecifikationen på CO2, med en reningsgrad på 99.998%. Denna studie anses vara unik då ingen litteratur rörande rökgasrening inom kemcyklisk förbränning var publicerad under skrivtiden av denna masteravhandling. / Chemical looping combustion (CLC) involves an inherent separation of carbon dioxide (CO2), since oxygen (O2) is transferred to the fuel via an oxygen carrier, circulating between the air and fuel reactor. With O2 being removed from nitrogen (N2) in the air reactor, a separate stream containing mostly CO2 and water (H2O) is produced in the fuel reactor, eliminating the need of expensive and energy-demanding gas separation technologies. The use of biomass as fuel in CLC may result in negative CO2 emissions if CO2 is captured and stored. The CO2 product gas must comply to certain purity levels depending on ways of CO2 transportation and where it will be stored. Besides H2O and CO2, the generated flue gas stream in CLC will also contain trace amounts of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx) and other contaminants, thus requiring a deep removal to ppm levels to comply with the stringent CO2 purity criteria for storage in saline aquifers in this work. Due to an incomplete combustion of fuel gases in CLC, an oxy-polishing step is required for a full conversion to gas products CO2 and H2O. Therefore, pure O2 is required for the oxy-polishing step. Some residual O2 will also be expected in the flue gas stream and needs to be reduced to ppm levels. The downstream treatment in CLC involves the best available gas processing technologies practiced commercially today, such as electrostatic precipitators (ESPs), wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD), selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR). Two CO2 processing systems are discussed in this work; the precooled Linde Hampson unit and the Distillation Separation unit. For each CO2 processing unit (CPU), a flue gas treatment is proposed. Amongst the two proposed scenarios, scenario 2, could with highest certainty, produce a liquid CO2 stream with a purity of 99.998%, complying to the CO2 criteria set by the Northern Lights Project in Norway. At the time of writing this thesis, no other literature has been published assessing flue gas treatment and CPU alternatives in in bio-CLC.

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) can recover large strains (e.g., up to 8%) by undergoing a temperature-induced phase transformation. This strain recovery can occur against large forces, resulting in their use as actuators. The SMA elements in such actuators integrate both sensory and actuation functions. This is possible because SMAs can inherently sense a change in temperature and actuate by undergoing a shape change, associated with the temperature-induced phase transformation. The objective of this work is to develop an SMA based cryogenic thermal conduction switch for operation between dewars of liquid methane and liquid oxygen in a common bulk head arrangement for NASA. The design of the thermal conduction switch is based on a biased, two-way SMA actuator and utilizes a commercially available NiTi alloy as the SMA element to demonstrate the feasibility of this concept. This work describes the design from concept to implementation, addressing methodologies and issues encountered, including: a finite element based thermal analysis, various thermo-mechanical processes carried out on the NiTi SMA elements, and fabrication and testing of a prototype switch. Furthermore, recommendations for improvements and extension to NASA's requirements are presented. Such a switch has potential application in variable thermal sinks to other cryogenic tanks for liquefaction, densification, and zero boil-off systems for advanced spaceport applications. The SMA thermal conduction switch offers the following advantages over the currently used gas gap and liquid gap thermal switches in the cryogenic range: (i) integrates both sensor and actuator elements thereby reducing the overall complexity, (ii) exhibits superior thermal isolation in the open state, and (iii) possesses high heat transfer ratios between the open and closed states. This work was supported by a grant from NASA Kennedy Space Center (NAG10-323) with William U. Notardonato as Technical Officer.

This research was born from NASA Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) need for passive, wireless and individually distinguishable cryogenic liquid and H2 gas sensors in various facilities. The risks of catastrophic accidents, associated with the storage and use of cryogenic fluids may be minimized by constant monitoring. Accidents involving the release of H2 gas or LH2 were responsible for 81% of total accidents in the aerospace industry. These problems may be mitigated by the implementation of a passive (or low-power), wireless, gas detection system, which continuously monitors multiple nodes and reports temperature and H2 gas presence. Passive, wireless, cryogenic liquid level and hydrogen (H2) gas sensors were developed on a platform technology called Orthogonal Frequency Coded (OFC) surface acoustic wave (SAW) radio frequency identification (RFID) tag sensors. The OFC-SAW was shown to be mechanically resistant to failure due to thermal shock from repeated cycles between room to liquid nitrogen temperature. This suggests that these tags are ideal for integration into cryogenic Dewar environments for the purposes of cryogenic liquid level detection. Three OFC-SAW H2 gas sensors were simultaneously wirelessly interrogated while being exposed to various flow rates of H2 gas. Rapid H2 detection was achieved for flow rates as low as 1ccm of a 2% H2, 98% N2 mixture. A novel method and theory to extract the electrical and mechanical properties of a semiconducting and high conductivity thin-film using SAW amplitude and velocity dispersion measurements were also developed. The SAW device was shown to be a useful tool in analysis and characterization of ultrathin and thin films and physical phenomena such as gas adsorption and desorption mechanisms.

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors are the most promising technology in quantum photon information. They offer high speed, high detection efficiency, low dark count rate as well as low timing jitter compared to other single photon detection solutions. Since the recent advances in photonic quantum computing, the drive for improvement of the implementation complexity, performance and scalability of quantum photon detection has increased. This presents challenges with the current device readout schemes and alternative solutions are required. One of the key parameters to improve the scalability of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, is reducing the power dissipation per pixel. This is especially important in cryogenic readouts, where the performance of electronic components changes compared to room temperature. Moreover, the performance of a cryogenic superconducting nanowire single-photon detector readout is dependent both on the device and readout electronics level characteristics, and both must be fine-tuned for desired performance. A solution to the scalability of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) is the development of a readout scheme with minimized power dissipation. We propose a fully digital readout scheme interfaced with a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD), that allows photon detection and reset. For this purpose, a digital single-pixel SiGe Bi-CMOS readout is designed, simulated, and characterised. An improved readout scheme is proposed with an addition of a die resistor to allow a full reset of the detector. / Supraledande nanotrådsdetektorer baserade på enstaka fotoner är ett av de mest avancerade koncepten inom kvantfotoninformationsteknik. Syftet med att utveckla denna teknik är att förbättra egenskaper så som komplexiteten, prestandan och skalbarheten. En av de viktigaste parametrarna för att förbättra skalbarheten hos supraledande nanotrådsdetektorer med enstaka fotoner är att minska energiförbrukningen per pixel. Detta är särskilt viktigt i kryogena avläsningar, där prestandan hos elektroniska komponenter förändras jämfört med rumstemperatur. Dessutom, beror prestandan hos en kryogen supraledande nanotrådsdetektor både på komponenten och på avläsningselektroniken,och båda måste finjusteras för att uppnå önskad prestanda. En lösning på kalbarheten för supraledande nanotrådsdetektorer med enstaka fotoner (SNSPDs) är att realisera avläsning med minimerad effektförlust. Vi föreslår en helt digital avläsning som är kopplad till en supraledande enfoton nanotrådsdetektor (SNSPD), som gör det möjligt att detektera fotoner och att återställa detektorn efter avläsning. För detta ändamål, designades, simuleras och karakteriserades en digital avläsningkrets med en enda pixel. Ett förbättrat avläsningssystem föreslås genom att lägga till ett diskret motstånd för att möjliggöra en fullständig återställning av detektorn.

This paper examines two examples of testing activities of sub-components of a 300kN methalox first-stage rocket engine developed by Pangea Aerospace, namely, theinjectors and the cryogenic pumps. One of the difficulties of these test campaignsis to evaluate the performances of these sub-components without using cryogenicpropellants and in conditions differing from flight conditions.Two different methods were used to replace the cryogenic propellants at extreme pressures and temperatures: the pumps were tested using water to replace both propellants, and the injectors were tested using water and nitrogen to account for the different propellant phases. The correlation, similarity methods, and bench sizing were detailed for both test campaigns, but only the injector test campaign was completed and its results were analyzed.The method to emulate cryogenic fluid behavior in a pump leads to the use of a bench controlling not only pressure and mass flow but also temperature to account for the cavitation effects. Furthermore, the bench must have the capability to pressurize the water under atmospheric pressure, leading to the use of a vacuum pump. The injector test campaign produces results that closely align with theoretical predictions. This enables the selection of the optimal single-element injector design through a quantitative assessment of the discharge coefficient and a qualitative evaluation of the spray angle and atomization. Although these studies are based on strong models, they must be compared to hotfire data and later flight data to be assessed fully, all the more so that the pump test campaign was not performed. / I denna rapport behandlas två exempel på provningsaktiviteter för delkomponenter av en methalox-driven 300 kN-klass raketmotor, utvecklad av Pangea Aerospace för användning på förstasteg. Delkomponenterna består av injektorerna samt dekryogena pumparna. En av svårigheterna med provkampanjerna är att utvärdera prestandan hos dessa delkomponenter utan att använda kryogena drivmedel och underförhållanden som skiljer sig från flygförhållandena. Två olika metoder användes för att imitera de kryogena drivmedlen vid extrema tryck och temperaturer. Först testades pumparna med vatten som en ersättning för de båda drivmedlen, och sedan testades injektorerna med både vatten och kväve för att ta hänsyn till de olika aggregations tillstånden. Korrelationen, likhetsmetoderna, samt provbänkstorleken utredes i detalj för bägge testkampanjer, men endast injektortestkampanjen slutfördes och dess resultat analyserades. Metoden för att efterlikna kryogena vätskors beteende i en pump leder till användning av en provbänk som inte bara reglerar tryck och massflöde utan även temperatur för att ta hänsyn till kavitations effekterna. Dessutom måste bänken ha kapacitet att trycksätta vattnet under atmosfärstryck, vilket leder till användning av en vakuumpump. Injektortestkampanjen ger resultat som ligger nära de teoretiska förutsägelserna. Detta gör det möjligt att välja den optimala injektordesignen genom en kvantitativ bedömning av utloppskoefficienten och en kvalitativ bedömning av vinkeln och finfördelningen av injektorstrålen. Även om dessa studier baseras på starka modeller måste de jämföras med data från brännprover och senare flygdata för att kunna bedömas fullt ut, särskilt som pumptestkampanjen inte genomfördes.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第24845号 / 工博第5162号 / 新制||工||1986(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科機械理工学専攻 / (主査)教授 平山, 朋子, 教授 松原, 厚, 教授 小森, 雅晴 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

Ein Fortschritt im Verständnis der Naturgesetzte wäre eine quantenphysikalische Beschreibung der Gravitation. Eine gültige Theorie der Quantengravitation (QG) existiert derzeit wegen des fehlenden experimentellen Zugangs des Planck-Skalen-Bereichs nicht. Dennoch können Experimente Hinweise für die Suche nach einer QG liefern. Die Standardmodellerweiterung (SME) bspw. beschreibt mögliche QG-induzierte beobachtbare niederenergetische Planck-Skalen-Effekte. Diesem Ansatz folgend wurde ein modernes Michelson-Morley-Experiment der nächsten Generation entwickelt, das es erstmalig erlaubt, simultan Obergrenzen für niederenergetische Planck-Skalen-Effekte in den Bewegungsgleichungen von Photonen und Fermionen zu bestimmen. Das zugrundeliegende theoretische Modell innerhalb der SME wurde neu betrachtet und Unstimmigkeiten korrigiert. Der Aufbau besteht aus ultra-stabilen kryogenen optischen Resonatoren (COREs) und Mikrowellenresonatoren, die gemeinsam im Raum rotieren. Die durch thermisches Rauschen limitierte vorhergesagte relative Frequenzinstabilität der entwickelten COREs liegt bei Temperaturen von flüssigem Helium im Bereich von 10^-17. Die Mikrowellenresonatoren können eine relative Frequenzinstabilität von 10^-16 erreichen. Um Störeinflüsse zu reduzieren, wurde zudem ein rauscharmer Niedrigtemperatur- sowie Drehtischaufbau konzipiert. Parallel wurde mit den Mikrowellenresonatoren ein einjähriges modernes Michelson-Morley-Experiment mit einer Sensitivität im Bereich von 10^-18 durchgeführt und erstmalig vollständig entkoppelte Obergrenzen für niederenergetische Planck-Skalen-Effekte im Bereich von 10^-17 bestimmt. Für den Aufbau der nächsten Generation lässt sich basierend auf der Frequenzinstabilität der COREs und der Mikrowellenresonatoren eine Sensitivität für niederenergetische Planck-Skalen-Effekte im Bereich von 10^-20 abschätzen. Zum ersten Mal kann somit der hypothetische Planck-unterdrückte-Bereich mit elektromagnetischen Resonatoren erkundet werden. / The next big leap in understanding the working principles of nature can be expected from a quantum physical description of gravity. None of the quantum gravity (QG) candidate theories can be verified, since observations at the Planck regime have currently been impossible. Still, experiments can help to give insights. For example, standard model extension (SME) describes potential observable low-energy remnant Planck scale effects. With this in mind, a design for a next-generation modern Michelson-Morley experiment has been developed that allows extracting upper bounds on potentially observable remnant Planck scale effects in the equations of motion of photons and fermions simultaneously. The corresponding theoretical model within the framework of the SME has been revisited and discrepancies have been corrected. The experimental setup consists of co-rotating ultra-stable cryogenic optical resonators (COREs) and ultra-stable sapphire loaded cryogenic microwave whispering-gallery resonators. The developed COREs have a theoretical thermal noise limited fractional frequency instability on the order of 10^-17 at liquid helium temperatures. The cryogenic microwave resonators allow in principle a performance on the order of 10^-16. For noise reduction, a suitable low noise cryogenic as well as turntable system has been designed. In parallel, a one-year modern Michelson-Morley measurement campaign with a sensitivity on the order of 10^-18 was carried out using the cryogenic microwave resonators. The experiment has allowed to set new stringent disentangled upper bounds on remnant Planck scale effects on the order of 10^-17. With the frequency performance of the COREs and cryogenic microwave resonators of the next-generation experimental setup, a sensitivity for remnant Planck scale effects on the order of 10^-20 can be estimated. Thus, the designed setup has the potential to explore the hypothetical Planck suppressed regime using electromagnetic resonators for the first time.

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