Thermal Performance Measurements of a 100 Percent Polyester MLI System for the Superconducting Super Collider; Part I: Instrumentation and Experimental Preparation (300K - 80K)

Thermal performance measurements of a 100 percent polyester multilayer insulation (MLI) system for the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) were conducted in a Heat Leak Test Facility (HLTF) under three experimental test arrangements. Each experiment measured the thermal performance of a 32- layer MLI blanket instrumented with twenty foil sensors to measure interstitial layer temperatures. Heat leak values and sensor temperatures were monitored during transient and steady state conditions under both design and degraded insulating vacuums. Heat leak values were measured using a heatmeter. MLI interstitial layer temperatures were measured using Cryogenic Linear Temperature Sensors (CLTS). Platinum resistors monitored system temperatures. High vacuum was measured using ion gauges; degraded vacuum employed thermocouple gauges. A four-wire system monitored instrumentation sensors and calibration heaters. An on-line computerized data acquisition system recorded and processed data. This paper reports on the instrumentation and experimental preparation used in carrying out these measurements. In complement with this paper is an associate paper bearing the same title head, but with the title extension PART II: LABORATORY RESULTS (300K-80K).1