FULLERENE TYPE MULTILAYER INSULATION BLANKET ON A SPHERICAL COLD SURFACE

Fullerene type multilayer insulation blanket is proposed for the insulation around a spherical cold surface, and has been applied to a 10 liter spherical tank of liquid nitrogen. As fullerene has 32 faces with 90 edges, 32 polygons of stacked insulation sheets must be connected each other to fabricate such a MLI blanket. The MLI blanket has 90 slots at connecting part between the polygons where thermal radiation heat transfer should be reduced. The size of the polygon made by the insulation films must be chosen so as to avoid excess compressive pressure between stacked insulation sheets. The design principle and the method to fabricate the blanket were studied, and the experimental results obtained by the fullerene type MLI blanket applied to the 10 liter spherical tank were measured.