As part of our capstone project, my team had the challenge of characterizing the flow of liquid nitrogen through the many valves and fitting of a cryogenic medical device. After instrumenting the device and collecting data, we demonstrated a way to establish the desired continuous liquid nitrogen flow, something that the original engineers had not been able to achieve.

I designed and machined the view tube, an instrument that allows for visual inspection of the physical state of the fluid running through the valve system. This was an interesting problem to solve since we needed materials that would a) be transparent, b) withstand the -196°C temperatures of the liquid nitrogen running through the system, and c) prevent the formation of frost and condensation on the tube, which would accumulate and block the view if allowed. The solution is described in our project poster below:

This student project was sponsored by CSA Medical, a company based in Lexington, MA.