Modeling and optimization of composite thermal insulation system with HGMs and VDMLI for liquid hydrogen on orbit storage

The passive thermal insulation system for liquid hydrogen (LH2) on orbit storage mainly consists of foam and variable density multilayer insulation (VDMLI) which have been considered as the most efficient and reliable thermal insulation system. The foam provides main heat leak protection on launch stage and the VDMLI plays a major role on orbit stage. However, compared with the extremely low thermal conductivity of VDMLI (1 × 10−5 W/(m·K)) at high vacuum, the foam was almost useless. Recently, based on hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) we have proposed the HGMs-VDMLI system which performs better than foam-VDMLI system. In order to improve insulation performance and balance weigh and environmental adaptability of passive insulation system, the HGMs-VDMLI insulation system should be configured optimally. In this paper, the thickness of HGMs and the number and arrangement of spacers of VDMLI were configured optimally by the “layer by layer” model. The effective thicknesses of HGMs were 25 mm for 60 layers MLI and 20 mm for 45 layers VDMLI. Compared with 35 mm foam and 45 layers VDMLI system, the heat flux of 20 mm HGMs and 45 layers VDMLI system was reduced by 11.97% with the same weight, or the weight of which was reduced by 9.91% with the same heat flux. Moreover, the effects of warm boundary temperature (WBT) and vacuum pressure on thermal insulation performance of the system were also discussed. •The HGMs-VDMLI insulation system was configured optimally.•The heat flux and weight of the HGMs-VDMLI were compared with foam-VDMLI.•The heat flux of the HGMs-VDMLI was reduced by 11.97% with the same weight.•The weight of the HGMs-VDMLI was reduced by 9.91% with the same heat flux.•The WBT and vacuum pressure of the HGMs-VDMLI were analysed.