Distributed Cooling in Cryogenics with Miniaturized Fluid Circuits

This work presents the development of miniaturized cryogenic fluid circuits for cooling of low temperature tracking detectors in High Energy Physics (HEPI. The system development comprises the circuit layout and control, and the design of major circuit components. It includes the development of a prototype cryogenic micropump compatible with cooling powers of about l0 W to l00 W, and capable of producing pressure heads of several bars. Focus is given to the design of microtube heat exchangers for direct evaporative cooling of sensors and electronic devices. Extensive experimental investigations on heat transfer in microtubes of 250 $\mu m$ and 500 $\mu m$ diameter are presented, carried out with argon at about 120 K. A new relative roughness parameter is introduced to model the effect of macroscopic surface roughness on convective heat transfer. An extension of the diameter function in the VDI Heat Atlas correlation for nucleate boiling in vertical tubes is proposed. Besides HEP, potential applications are especially found in the field of superconductor technology.