Cooling of MRI magnets without a continuous supply of Scarce Helium Cryogenic has developed a new way to cool magnets for MRI machines to near absolute zero without the need for a continuous supply of liquid helium. As, we know,MRI (magnetic resonant imaging) machines work by generating a very large magnetic field using a super conducting magnet and many coils of wires through which a current is passed. For maintaining a large magnetic field needs a lot of energy is requires, and this is accomplished using superconductivity, which involves trying to reduce the resistance in the wires to almost zero. This is done by bathing the wires in a continuous supply of liquid helium at -269.1C. A typical MRI scanner uses 1,700 litres of liquid helium, which needs to be topped up periodically.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 18:13:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015