JPH0611098A - Gas pressure vessel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent abrupt lowering of a temperature due to adibatic expansion of gas to be used, in case that two kinds of gas is used. CONSTITUTION:A space inside a vessel main body is divided into two parts A, B independent on each other by means of a flexible and extandable/ contractible partition (bladder 2). Supplying/discharging ports 3, 4 for pressurizing gas are formed respectively on the parts A, B. When the gas inside one of the parts A, B is used, the pressure of the gas inside the other parts is applied for suppressing lowering of the pressure of the used gas and reducing a lowering ratio of the temperature.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gas pressure vessel applied to a system, such as a spacecraft, which needs to use two or more kinds of gases (helium, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, etc.).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when two or more kinds of gases are required, a dedicated pressure vessel is prepared for each gas and each gas is supplied from the dedicated pressure vessel.

[0003]

When two or more kinds of gases are filled in the respective dedicated pressure vessels as in the above-mentioned conventional technique, one of the gases is discharged in a short time / at a large flow rate. Then, the gas temperature significantly decreases due to adiabatic expansion. That is, the pressure in the pressure vessel is 1 and the gas temperature is 1
When the above gas is released in a short time, the gas undergoes adiabatic expansion and expands in the following pressure / temperature relationship. The pressure 2 and the gas temperature 2 are the pressure and the gas temperature of the gas that has undergone adiabatic expansion.

[0004]

[Equation 1]

For this reason, when the gas in the exclusive pressure vessel is discharged all at once from a high pressure to a low pressure, the gas temperature will drop rapidly.

In the spacecraft, (1) In the spacecraft, (1) in the reaction propulsion system by gas injection, the gas expansion deteriorates due to the temperature decrease, and the thrust efficiency decreases. (2) In a valve opening / closing system using a pressure-regulated gas, the sealing material of the valve becomes fragile due to a decrease in temperature, resulting in poor sealing performance. There is a problem such as.

Also, in applications other than spacecraft, from the viewpoint of ensuring sealing performance, preventing condensation of water and freezing,
Often, lowering the temperature of the supplied gas is undesirable.

The present invention is intended to provide a gas pressure vessel which can solve the above problems.

[0009]

The gas pressure container of the present invention divides the inside of the container main body into two independent parts by a flexible and expandable partition, and pressurizes each of the divided parts. It is characterized in that a gas supply / discharge port is provided.

[0010]

In the present invention, two kinds of pressurized gas are supplied and filled through the respective supply / discharge ports into two parts in the container body partitioned by the flexible partition.

When one pressurizing gas is used, the one pressurizing gas is discharged from the container body through the supply / discharge port. Depending on the residual ratio, the flexible partition may move to change the volumes of the two parts so that the pressures of the two gases become substantially equal, and thus the pressure of the one pressurized gas used may drop sharply. Absent. Further, even if almost all of the pressurized gas of one is used up, the portion containing the other gas occupies almost all of the inside of the container body, and the pressure of one pressurized gas is maintained to some extent. .

Therefore, during the use of one of the pressurized gases, the pressure of the pressurized gas does not drop sharply and the degree of temperature drop is reduced.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. This embodiment relates to a gas pressure vessel used in a spacecraft, and uses two kinds of gas, helium gas and nitrogen gas. Helium gas is used to power the valves of the propulsion system of the spacecraft and to pressurize the fuel tank, and nitrogen gas is used to control the attitude when docking the space station. Therefore, helium gas is used at the beginning and end of the spacecraft mission, and nitrogen gas is intensively used at the midpoint of the mission.

Reference numeral 1 is a container body of a gas pressure container, and a supply / discharge port 3 for helium gas and a supply / discharge port 4 for nitrogen gas are provided at positions opposite to each other. 2 is an airtight spherical bladder which is arranged in the container body 1 and which is flexible and expandable and contractable.
And the vicinity of the opening 2a of the bladder 2 is airtightly attached to the container body 1 by the same supply / discharge port 4. Therefore,
By the bladder 2, the inside of the container body 1 is separated from each other by a portion B inside the bladder 2 and a portion A between the bladder 2 and the container body 1.
It is divided into

In this embodiment, as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2 (a), pressurized helium gas and pressurized nitrogen gas are supplied from chambers 3 and 4 into chambers A and B, respectively. As a result, the bladder 2 is brought into the state shown in FIG.

When either one of the gases, for example, nitrogen gas is used, the nitrogen gas in the chamber B is discharged from the supply / discharge port 4 as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2 (b). In this case,
The bladder 2 moves due to the residual ratio of the nitrogen gas and the helium gas, and the state shown in FIG. 2B is obtained. Since the bladder 2 itself is flexible, has elasticity, and can expand and contract, the pressure difference between the nitrogen gas in the portion A and the helium gas in the portion B is minute.

Therefore, even if the volume of the chamber B is reduced by using the nitrogen gas, the pressure of the nitrogen gas in the chamber B becomes almost equal to the pressure of the helium gas in the expanded chamber A. There is little decrease in the pressure, and the nitrogen gas does not decrease the pressure to cause adiabatic expansion abruptly and the temperature does not significantly decrease.

When the use of the nitrogen gas is continued, the volume occupied by the nitrogen gas, that is, the volume of the chamber B is almost lost,
The state is as shown in FIG. In this case, the pressure of the nitrogen gas in the chamber B is almost equal to the pressure of the helium gas in the chamber A, and the value is maintained to some extent, so that the temperature of the nitrogen gas can be reduced to a lesser degree.

Also, when helium gas is used in the opposite manner, the degree of temperature decrease of helium gas can be similarly reduced.

As described above, in this embodiment, the degree of temperature drop of the nitrogen gas and helium gas used can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the temperature of the helium gas used as a power source for valves and the like from significantly lowering, and to maintain the performance of the sliding / sealing portion. It is possible to prevent a significant decrease in temperature and prevent a decrease in propulsion efficiency.

FIG. 3 shows the pressure drop and temperature drop when using nitrogen gas in this embodiment. As a comparative example, FIG. 4 shows the pressure drop / temperature drop when a conventional dedicated container is used. 3 and 4, the usage rates of nitrogen gas are set to the same value. As can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 4, in the case of the present embodiment, the pressure drop during use is low and the degree of temperature drop is much lower than in the prior art.

In this embodiment, when one gas is used and the other gas is used, if the one gas remains in the container body 1 to a certain extent, the other gas is directly used. Can be used by discharging from the inside of the container body 1. However, when almost all of the one gas is discharged from inside the container body 1, the one gas is filled into the container body 1 again. Then, the discharge of the other gas is started.

As the bladder used in this embodiment, a sheet-shaped material which is flexible and can expand and contract by itself to expand and contract can be used, and the bellows-like shape can be deformed. It is also possible to use a flexible material that expands and contracts. Further, in this embodiment, the bladder divides the inside of the container body into a portion inside the bladder and a portion outside the bladder. It is also possible to divide the inside into two parts such as one side and the other side of the bladder.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, the inside of the container body is partitioned into two independent parts by the flexible and expandable partition, and the pressurized gas is supplied to each of the partitioned parts. Since the supply / discharge port is provided, the degree to which the temperature of one of the gases drops when used can be made extremely small.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the operation of the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing pressure drop and temperature drop when using nitrogen gas in the same example.

FIG. 4 is a graph similar to FIG. 3 in the case where conventional dedicated containers for each gas are used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 container main body 2 bladder 3,4 supply / discharge port A, B compartmentalized part in container

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A container body is divided into two independent parts by a flexible and expandable partition, and a pressurized gas supply / discharge port is provided in each of these divided parts. A gas pressure vessel that does.