Aan : De geinteresseerde lezer
Van : E. Berends
Datum : 10-12-1999
Grenco memo OTS 98.015
Artificial ice skating tracks A sport with natural
refrigerants
The historic fall of the virgin Lydwina in 1396
Lydwina is now the patron saint of ice skating.
wood engraving by Johannes Brugman, 1498
Ice skating: Sport with natural refrigerants
Ice skating is a famous sport in Northern Europe, and in particular in
the Netherlands. Most sporters prefer natural ice. However it is feared that
winters may not be as freezing in the future. A good replacement is ice skating
on artificial ice. This is to say: the ice is very natural, but the way it is
produced is with mechanical cooling machines. In this short overview a history
is given of artificial ice skating tracks around the world. The tracks provide
examples of the achievements of cooling and freezing technology, in particular
the way natural refrigerants are used in large cooling systems with excellent
results.
Ice palaces, the early stages of ice skating tracks The first real
artificial ice tracks were used in Great Britain: in 1840 there was a small
"Glacarium", using salty solutions or chemical mixtures to make a surface,
looking like ice. In 1851 the American physician John Gorrie got a patent for
his ice-machine, which made use of vapour compression. It operated with air and
he could make ice in a basin at -7° C. In memory of his great achievements a
statue of Dr. Gorrie was erected on Capitol Hill in Washington. Soon after this
invention, interest was attracted by Brittish scientists. Rankin describes an
open cold air machine in 1852 to cool down the air in tropical houses. On the
European continent more and more vapour compression cooling machines were
developed.
The famous German scientist Von Linde used ammonia (NH3) as refrigerant
while the Swiss Professor Raoul Pictet designed a machine with the poisonous
sulphur dioxide, SO2. It is then 1874. In 1876 the British Dr. John Gamnee
pumped glycerine through a network of elliptic copper tubes. The glycerine was
cooled down with a machine of Raoul Pictet. This small network of pipes was
located at Chelsea and is called the first 'artificial ice skating track in the
world'. The principle of pumping cold liquids through a network of pipes, was
copied by others soon.
So everywhere in Europe small ice skating halls
were built, in Paris, London and Berlin, with beautiful names like Eispalast,
Palais de Glace etc. In the United States the first ice hall of this kind opened
its doors in New York, 1876. It measured 864 m2 . Shopping centers and hotels
also had small ice floors for figure skating, ice dancing, ice shows etc. In
Frankfurt, Germany the first skating track was built in 1881, where the system
of Von Linde was used. It consisted of a water basin. On the bottom there was a
piping system of 5,3 km total length. Brine was cooled by an ammonia vapour
compression machine. The brine was pumped through the pipes. Total surface: 532
m2. Berlin got its first Eispalast in 1908 with Borsig machines (1900 m2). In
1910 followed by the Sportpalast with 2500 m2 and Quiri machines. In 1911 the
Admiralspalast opened with CO2 compressors of Escher Wyss. Even for Berlin three
ice palaces were too much and soon they had to close doors.
Machines of Prof. R. Pictet were used to cool down glycerine, which was pumped through a
piping system in the first artificial skating track: in Chelsea, England: an
indirect system with SO2 and glycerine.
Outdoor skating tracks
All mentioned tracks had a roof on top. While they were closing down,
the open air skating tracks became more popular. In Vienna (Austria) , Eduard
Engelmann , the European champion figure skating (1892-94), had plans in 1896
for outside tracks. It took until 1909 before the Engelmann-track opened with
1100 m2, later extended to 1900 m2. The largest track must have had a area of
about 4000 m2. NH3 compressors of 814 kW cooled the liquid which was pumped
through 33 km of tubes. At the same moment in Melbourne (1906) and Sydney (1907)
there were tracks of 1300 m2 with direct evaporation of refrigerant in the
pipes.
In the Netherlands it lasted until 1934 before the first artificial ice
skating track was used. On the bottom of a swimming pool in Amsterdam a set of
pipes were installed. With an area of 60 x 40 m slightly larger then a standard
ice hockey track. The first training of the Dutch speed skaters took place on
this track. Soon some other (60 x 30 m) tracks followed like The Hague (indoors,
1937), Tilburg (outdoors, 1938). In Tilburg the local company for ice banks took
care of the cooling. When more and more refrigerators came in the households and
the demand for ice banks was vanishing, the company and the skating track closed
doors (1951). It was rebuilt in 1964, now with mechanical NH3 cooling (Grasso).
There have been ice skating tracks with chemical refrigerants, like in Rotterdam
in the sporting palace AHOY. A 60 X 30 m ice track was installed for some time
in the seventies. The cold was generated with a York-Shipley turbo compressor in
a direct expansion system, containing 10 tons of R-114. Unthinkable nowadays.
Other tracks were installed with HCFC-22 as working fluid. They exist until
today, however legislation will restrict the application of this ozone depleting
chemical. In Europe they are banned from 1/1/2000 onwards.
400 meter tracks
In the fifties there were no 400 m artificial ice skating rinks
anywhere in the world. Nevertheless European and World championships speed
skating were organized every year. This took place on outdoor skating tracks, so
obviously the winters were more severe in those days. Oslo, Davos, Moscow,
Helsinki and sometimes Hamar, Trondheim, Stockholm and Östersund are mentioned
in newspaper reports of these events. Many European- and World championships
(and also the Olympics 1952) took place In Oslo, in the famous Bislett stadium
on natural ice until the mid eighties. In recent years this would have been
impossible because of the higher outside temperatures. In 1999 many people say
that speed skating should be an indoor sport alltogether!!
Nya Ullevi, the first 400 m artificial ice skating rink.
In 1958 the World Championships soccer took place in Gotenburg, Sweden.
The beautiful stadium Nya Ullevi was built for this purpose. It was not only
useful for soccer, but also for motor speedway, athletics and…speed skating. In
1959 the first European championships took place on artificial ice. The famous
Norwegian Knut Johanessen became champion. There were 55.000 spectators in 2
days. Under the speed skating rink the galvanized steel pipes (90 km in total!!)
were positioned on top of the runway for the athletes and partly on the soccer
field. During the summer the pipes were removed. The radius of the curves of an
400 m skating track are different from the runway for athletes. That is the
reason why the piping cannot be installed under the gravel of the athletic
tracks. Besides that the gravel will be damaged too much during freezing and
defrost. The cooling system in Nya Ullevi consisted of HCFC-22 compressors
(STAL) and an indirect brine pumping system (- 10° C). In 1961 the Dutchman Henk
van der Grift became world champion in Gotenburg , 10 years later the famous Ard
Schenk repeated this. At that event a first world record was established on
artificial ice: 15.01.6 on the 10 km. There were 70,000 spectators. Since
1985 there is no skating anymore in Ullevi. Pipes and machinery have been sold
to an skating club in the North of Sweden.
Squaw Valley
The second artificial 400 m track was built for the Winter Olympics
1960 in Squaw Valley (Canada ) : an indirect system again. In reports of those
days the very good and fast ice is mentioned. Note: This skating rink was
situated at a height of 1890 m, higher than the olympic rink (natural ice) at
Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 and the famous Russian record rink in Alma Ata (Almaty in
Kazakhstan). Knut Johannesen broke the 16 minutes border for the first time ever
at the 10 km: 15.46.6. He crushed the old record of Hjallis Andersen, 16.32.6
which lasted 8 years! Nowadays the record is in the order of 13.20 by the Dutch
Gianni Romme. Speed skaters will hardly ever perform their sport on natural ice
nowadays anymore. The Squaw Valley freezing system was moved to West Allis in
1966 to become there the first US artificial 400 m track.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands the third 400 m track in the world was built in
Amsterdam (1961), designed and constructed by the Dutch company Grasso It was
named after the famous Jaap Eden, a former European and World champion in the
beginning of the century. This track in Amsterdam was also a "removable" one,
stored during summer time.
The complete steel piping system (ca 50 km in total),
consisted of 269 parts of 11x1,8 m. The construction was unique in the world as
it was the first direct NH3 pump system of this size, containing 42 tons of
ammonia circulating through the pipes from October until March and stored in a
large suction drum during the summer. A specially designed forklift-truck would
take the 269 pipe elements in a few days for storage until next winter. However
in reality the work took a lot longer and the track was removed only once!
After 30 years of good service the system was renovated in 1990. The
track became wider: from 11 to 13 m , new steel tubes in concrete now. Because
of a smaller pipe size the total ammonia charge was reduced from 42 to 11 tons!
Renovation costs were some 5 million US$, while the building itself in 1961 cost
only 0,5 million US$. The NH3 compressors were delivered by Grasso again.
Deventer
The fourth 400 m track was built in Deventer in 1962. Compressors were
installed by the Swedish STAL company, here also direct ammonia expansion with
70 km pipe and only 10 tons NH3 . So at that time half of all the 400 m
artificial skating tracks were in the Netherlands. Numerous championships have
been organized in Deventer in those years, but only one worldrecord was noted:
The Norwegian Fred Anton Maier fixed the new 5 km record in 1968 at 7.26.2.
During the World championships in 1969 some 48,000 spectators watched the
champions during two days. There were more than 200,000 requests for tickets.
However the Lenin (natural ice) stadium in Moscow has still the "spectators
records" with 80,000 spectators during the World championships in 1962. In 1982
the reciprocating compressors in Deventer were replaced by STAL screw
compressors.
In 1992 the track was closed down, also after some 30 years in use,
during this period they had about 8 million visitors (skaters and spectators).
The compressor units could be reused at the newly built skating track, now with
an indirect NH3/glycol system (1250 kg NH3 content) in another neighbourhood of
Deventer.
Besides a half covered 400 m skating rink there is also a tropical swimming palace and sporting hall.
Thialf
The third Dutch 400 m rink has become the most famous one. It is the
Thialf Stadium at Heerenveen. It was built in 1966 (as usual now NH3 direct
expansion), with the Olympic Ice Stade in Innsbrück as example. It was the first
rink in the Netherlands with a concrete floor, a patent of the Swiss firm Escher
Wyss, who also installed the compressors. They were replaced by Grasso
compressors for the direct ammonia system in 1978.
A roof was constructed on top of this track in 1986, just a bit earlier
than the Olympic Oval in Calgary. Almost all championships in the Netherlands
are designated to Thialf now. The famous 'floating roof' in Heerenveen has no
pillars around the track, it has 14,000 seats and offers the spectators a
splendid view on the rink. Because the roof was constructed later, there is
still a direct system with a considerable over-capacity.
Cooling systems
Nowadays an indirect NH3 system is compulsory in an indoor stadium,
because of safety considerations. At this moment (1999 ) there are 13 speed
skating rinks in the Netherlands and plans for at least another 5! What is the
beginning, what is the end? The first indoor ice track had no cooling at all!
Just the windows were open in the "Skating Club House" in Canada in 1854. The
first artificial ice tracks used an indirect system and were all indoors. After
almost a century of outdoor artificial tracks with direct expansion systems, we
see that nowadays ice tracks are built indoors with indirect systems. The same
goes for the refrigerants: starting with natural refrigerants like CO2 and NH3,
later on the ozone depleting chemicals like CFC-114 and HCFC-22 were used.
At present most of the tracks are cooled with ammonia and there is the
perspective of using CO2 as a secondary fluid in the near future. So the circle
is round, the same with the scientific interest in ice skating. In the beginning
we saw the great influence and interest of the scientists. Nowadays speed
skating is high-tech again with klap-skates, aerodynamic outfits and strips,
using osmose water etc.
For further information Grenco
Ernst Berends
adress P.O.box 205,
5201 AE, 's Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
phone (0)73 - 6203129
fax (0)73 - 6210340
email eberends@grenco.nl
website www.grenco.nl
Last time refreshed on
16 oktober 2000
© '99 '00 Caroline van Staaveren
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