Thermal Performance of a 4 K High-Frequency Pulse Tube Cryocooler with Different Working Fluids

The high-frequency pulse tube cryocooler(HPTC)represents a promising miniature cryocooling technology due to its compact structure and the absence of low-temperature moving components.However,limited to the non-ideal gas effect of4He,the HPTC is hard to obtain high cooling performance in the liquid helium temperature range.3He as the working fluid can effectively improve the cooling performance of the HPTC,but the high cost hinders its wide application.In consideration of both cooling performance and cost-effectiveness,this paper explores the feasibility of utilizing^(3)He-^(4)He mixtures as the working fluid for HPTCs.Firstly,the experimental results of a developed HPTC based4He are reported.With a total power consumption of 575 W,the lowest temperature of 3.26 K was observed.And the measured cooling power at 4.2 K was 20.8 mW.Then the theoretical utmost efficiency of the cryocooler was calculated in terms of the thermophysical properties of the working fluids,using ^(3)He-^(4)He mixtures with different compositions as the working fluids.The whole machine modeling of the HPTC was further carried out,and the influence of the working fluids with different components on the structural parameters such as double-inlet and inertance tube,and operating parameters such as pressure and frequency were analyzed.The calculated results show that the cooling power is expected to be increased to36 mW and 53 mW if the equimolar ^(3)He-^(4)He mixture and pure ^(3)He are used,respectively.

Optimization of the Swept Volume Ratio between the Compressor and the Active Displacer in an Efficient 20 K Thermal-Coupled Two-Stage Pulse Tube Cryocooler

As an important component of the stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler(SPTC),an efficient phase shifter can significantly improve the cooling capacity.Compared to the common phase shifter,the active warm displacer(AWD)has a wider phase adjustment range and therefore can obtain a better phase relationship easily.Based on a two-stage thermal-coupled SPTC operating in the 20 K range,this paper studied the influence of the swept volume ratio between the compressor and displacer.The research found that the swept volume ratio changes the cooling capacity and efficiency of the cryocooler mainly by changing the phase difference between the pressure wave and the volume flow at the cold end.It was found from the results of the simulation and experiments that there is an optimal displacement of the displacer(Xd)of 2.5 mm and an optimal phase angle of 15°to obtain the highest cooling efficiency while the displacement of the compressor is constant.The cooling capacity at 20 K is 1.3 W while the input electrical power of the second stage compressor is 202 W,which indicates an overall relative Carnot efficiency(rCOP)of 0.055 in terms of input electrical power.In addition,due to the reasonable setting of precooling temperature and capacity,the swept volume ratio and phase at the maximum cooling capacity and maximum efficiency are consistent in this study.The research improves the understanding of phase shifters and has guiding significance for the optimization of the SPTC working below 20 K.

Design and preliminary experimental investigation of a 4K Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler with precooling

A Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler （PTC） with precooling was designed and manufactured to investigate its performance at 4 K. Numerical simulation was carried out based on the well-known regenerator model REGEN with an emphasis on the performance of a 4 K stage regenerator of the Stifling-type PTC as influenced by the warm end temperature, pressure ratio, frequency and average pressure with helium-4 and helium-3 as the working fluid respectively. This study demonstrates that the use of a cold inertance tube can significantly improve the efficiency of a 4 K Stirling-type PTC. A preliminary experimental investigation was carried out with helium-4 as the working fluid and a refrigeration temperature of 4.23 K was achieved. The experimental results show that the operating frequency has a significant influence on the performance of the Stirling-type PTC and a relatively low average pressure is favorable for decreasing the loss associated with the real gas effects of a 4 K Stirling-type PTC.

Development of a linear compressor for two-stage pulse tube cryocoolers

A valveless linear compressor was built up to drive a self-made two-stage pulse tube cryocooler. With a designed maximum swept volume of 60 cm3, the compressor can provide the cryocooler with a pressure volume (PV) power of 400 W. Preliminary measurements of the compressor indicated that both an efficiency of 35%～55% and a pressure ratio of 1.3～1.4 could be obtained. The two-stage pulse tube cryocooler driven by this compressor achieved the lowest temperature of 14.2 K.