• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.21-27
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• 2018

It is difficult to fabricate and maintain moving parts of expander at cryogenic temperature. This paper describes numerical analysis and experimental investigation on a cryogenic reciprocating expander without moving piston. An intake valve which takes high-pressure gas, and an exhaust valve which discharges low-pressure gas, are connected to a tube. The inside pressure of the tube is pulsated for work production. This geometric configuration is similar to that of pulse tube refrigerator but without regenerator. An orifice valve and a reservoir are installed to control the phase of the mass flow and the pressure. At the warm end, a heat exchanger rejects the heat which is converted from the produced work of the expanded gas. For the numerical analysis, mass conservation, energy conservation, and local mass function for valves are used as the governing equations. Before performing cryogenic experiments, we carried out the expander test at room temperature and compared the performance results with the numerical results. For cryogenic experiments, the gas is pre-cooled by liquid nitrogen, and then it enters the pulse tube expander. The experiments are controlled by the opening of the orifice valve. Numerical analysis also found the expander conditions that optimize the expander performance by changing the intake pressure and valve timing as well as the opening of the orifice valve. This paper discusses the experimental data and the numerical analysis results to understand the fundamental behavior of such a newly developed non-mechanical expander and elucidate its potential feature for cryogenic application.

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.34-37
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• 2012

In this paper, configurations and performance of a pulse tube engine (PTE) are investigated. The configuration of PTE is basically designed by using a concept of energy flow. The configurations of PTE are classified as a PTE with two pistons and a PTE with one piston. First, the PTE with two pistons is simulated and the Carnot efficiency is about 41 %. The phase difference of between motion of two pistons located at expander and compressor mainly effects the performance of the PTE. Second, the PTE with one piston is designed. From a concept of analogy, the piston of compressor is replaced by a compliance tube and a resonator. The PTE with one piston is identical with a thermoacousic engine and has the large volume because the compliance tube and resonator are consisted of large volume tubes. Therefore, we will consider each usefulness of the compact PTE with two pistons and the huge PTE with one piston for PTE applications and the judgement of feasibility.

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.42-47
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• 2016

A free-piston reciprocating expander is a device which operates without any mechanical linkage to a stationary part. Since the motion of the floating piston is only controlled by the pressure difference at two ends of the piston, this kind of expander may indispensably require a sophisticated active control system equipped with multiple valves and reservoirs. In this paper, we have suggested a novel design that can further reduce complexity of the previously developed cryogenic free-piston expander configuration. It is a simple replacement of both multiple valves and reservoirs by a combination of an orifice valve and a reservoir. The functional characteristic of the integrated orifice-reservoir configuration is similar to that of a phase controller applied in a pulse tube refrigerator so that we designate the one as a phase controller. Depending on the orifice valve size in the phase controller, the different PV work which affects the expander performance is generated. The numerical model of this unique free-piston reciprocating expander utilizing a phase controller is established to understand and analyze quantitatively the performance variation of the expander under different valve timing and orifice valve size. The room temperature experiments are carried out to examine the performance of this newly developed cryogenic expander.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2001년도 추계학술대회논문집B
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• pp.118-123
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• 2001

The linear compressor have been widely used for pressure wave generation in the Stirling cryocooler and Stirling type pulse tube cryocooler for tactical purpose. The linear compressor has small and compact structure, and long life due to having non-contact sealing mechanism. and the pressure drop through regenerator was ver important role in the motion of displacer in the expander of the Stirling cryocooler. In this study, the characteristic of the linear compressor and the pressure drop through regenerator in the expander was experimentally investigated. The results show the resonance of the compressor is very important to get maximum performance. and the gas spring force in the compression space of the compressor has effect on the characteristic of reonance. and the results show the pressure drop through regenerator is very small than operating pressure change.