Physics-integrated neural network modeling of heat and mass transfer in cryogenic liquid storage under static and dynamic conditions

Abstract

Accurate system-level prediction of cryogenic liquid storage remains challenging because reduced-order models rely on regime-dependent closures for unresolved heat and mass transfer, particularly under sloshing. We present a physics-integrated neural-network framework that combines a conservation-based zero-dimensional nodal model with data-driven closures for wall and interfacial heat transfer, phase change, pressurant quality, and liquid thermal-boundary-layer evolution. Thermal stratification and mixing within the liquid are represented through a first-order dynamical model for the boundary-layer thickness, while four operating-regime-specific neural networks infer the closure parameters for self-pressurization and relaxation, active pressurization, venting, and lateral sloshing. The framework was identified and evaluated using a dedicated database of 48 multi-stage cryogenic-tank experiments conducted in an optically accessible facility operated with liquid nitrogen. The experiments combine controlled wall heating, vapor injection and evacuation, and forced lateral sloshing, thereby covering both slowly evolving thermal states and strongly transient operating conditions. Generalization was assessed through experiment-level K-fold cross-validation, while an entropy-production penalty was included in the loss function to discourage violations of the second law of thermodynamics. Across the investigated cross-validation configurations, the global normalized root-mean-square error remained under 3%, with sloshing representing the most demanding regime. A final model trained on the complete database reconstructed the experiments with a global error of 1.6%. These results demonstrate that the proposed framework can extract physically interpretable and computationally efficient closure laws from a limited but information-rich experimental database.