Isothermal pumping analysis for high-altitude tethered balloons

Abstract

High-altitude tethered balloons have potential applications in communications, surveillance, meteorological observations and climate engineering. To maintain balloon buoyancy, power fuel cells and perturb atmospheric conditions, fluids could be pumped from ground level to altitude using the tether as a hose. This paper examines the pumping requirements of such a delivery system. Cases considered include delivery of hydrogen, sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and powders as fluid-based slurries. Isothermal analysis is used to determine the variation of pressures and velocities along the pipe length. Results show that transport of small quantities of hydrogen to power fuel cells and maintain balloon buoyancy can be achieved at pressures and temperatures that are tolerable in terms of both the pipe strength and the current state of pumping technologies. To avoid solidification, transport of SO 2 would require elevated temperatures that cannot be tolerated by the strength fibres in the pipe. While the use of particle-based slurries rather than SO 2 for climate engineering can reduce the pipe size significantly, the pumping pressures are close to the maximum bursting pressure of the pipe.