Modelling of pulse tube refrigerators with inertance tube and mass-spring feedback mechanism
File(s)KWSDFCFDR2-FDSD.pdf (1.21 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Wang, Kai
Dubey, Swapnil
Choo, Fook Hoong
Duan, Fei
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Most of the current Stirling-type pulse tube refrigerators (PTRs) adopt inertance tubes with large reservoirs for phase shifting. Recovering the acoustic power dissipated in the inertance tube provides a great potential for improving the efficiency of a PTR. In this study, an inertance tube PTR is modified by replacing the dissipative inertance tube and reservoir with a mass-spring displacer directly coupled to a compression space. Numerical simulations are conducted on both the PTRs based on a validated one-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model. Optimization of the inertance tube PTR shows that the coefficient of performance (COP) is limited within 0.103 at the cooling temperature of 77 K. The simulation of the PTR with the feedback mechanism indicates that COP can be significantly improved due to the extra power recovered by the mass-spring displacer. The parametric analyses of the moving mass, spring stiffness, mechanical resistance, piston diameter, and working frequency of the mass-spring displacer are finally performed. The phase relations at both ends of the regenerator are significantly influenced by the geometric and operating parameters, which further affect the performance. The designing parameters have been optimized, COP reaches about 0.13–0.14 with the relative Carnot COP of around 0.4. It demonstrates that adopting the mass-spring displacer to feed the expansion power back into the compression space is an effective way of improving the performance of PTRs. This work provides comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms and characteristics of the PTRs with the mass-spring displacer. It would be helpful for future designs of such systems.
Date Issued
2016-06-01
Date Acceptance
2016-03-02
Citation
Applied Energy, 2016, 171, pp.172-183
ISSN
0306-2619
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
172
End Page
183
Journal / Book Title
Applied Energy
Volume
171
Copyright Statement
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000375515500016&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Energy & Fuels
Engineering, Chemical
Engineering
Pulse tube
Acoustic power recovery
Stirling
Cryocooler
Mass-spring displacer
Inertance tube
THERMOACOUSTIC ELECTRIC GENERATOR
HEAT-EXCHANGERS
NUMERICAL-SIMULATION
PERFORMANCE
REGENERATOR
CRYOCOOLER
RECOVERY
COOLER
ENERGY
VOLUME
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2016-03-22