• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.284-291
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• 2000

A basic pulse tube refrigerator has been constructed with extensive instrumentation to study the characteristics of the heat exchanger experimentally under the oscillating pressure and the oscillating flow. This paper describes the sequential experiments with the basic pulse tube refrigerator. The experiments were performed for various cycle frequencies under the square pressure wave forms. First, the heat flux was measured through the cycle at the both cold and warm end heat exchangers without the regenerator. In order to enhance the thermal communication capability of the heat exchanger with the gas at low operating frequencies, a unique design of the triangular shape radial fin concept was applied to the heat exchangers. For the fin heat exchanger, the measured heat flux and the calculated heat flux from the two well-known oscillating heat transfer correlations were compared and discussed. Second, the regenerator was added to the pulse tube to make a basic pulse tube refrigerator configuration. The experiment showed the great impact of the regenerator on the temperature and the heat flux profiles. At the warm-end, the cyclic averaged heat flux had its maximum value at the specific operating frequency. The paper presents the explanation of the surface heat pumping effect as well as the experimental data.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.20 no.3
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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.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.51-56
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• 2015

Cryogenic cooling system for HTS electric power devices requires a reliable and efficient high-capacity cryocooler. A Striling cryocooler with a linear compressor can be a good candidate. It has advantages of low vibration and long maintenance cycle compared with a kinematic-driven Stirling cryocooler. In this study, we developed dual-opposed linear compressor of 12 kW electric input power with two 6 kW linear motors. Electrical performance of fabricated linear compressor is verified by experimental measurement of thrust constant. The developed Stirling cryocooler has gamma-type configuration. Piston and displacer are supported with flexure spring. A slit-type heat exchanger is adopted for cold and warm-end, and the generated heat is rejected by cooling water. In cooling performance test, waveforms of voltage, current, displacement and pressure are obtained and their amplitude and phase difference are analysed. Moreover, temperatures of cooling water, housing and linear motor are recorded and electric power parameters of driving circuit are also obtained. The developed Stirling cryocooler reaches to 47.8 K within 23.4 min. with no-load. From heat load tests, it shows cooling capacity of 440 W at 78.1 K with 6.45 kW of electric input power and 19.4 of % Carnot COP.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1095-1101
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• 2002

An experimental apparatus was prepared to investigate thermal and hydrodynamic characteristics of regenerator at cryogenic temperature under pulsating pressure condition. The regenerator was pressurized and depressurized by a compressor with various operating frequencies. Cold end of the regenerator was maintained around 100 K by means of a liquid nitrogen heat exchanger. Instantaneous gas temperature and mass flow rate were measured at both ends of the regenerator during the whole pressure cycle. Pulsating pressure drop across the regenerator was also measured to see if it could be predicted by a friction factor at steady flow condition. The operating frequency of pressure cycle was varied between 3 and 60 Hz, which are typical operating frequencies of Gifford-McMahon, pulse tube, and Stilting cryocoolers. First, the measured friction factor for typical wire screen mesh regenerator was nearly same as steady flow friction factor for maximum oscillating Reynolds number up to 100 at less than 9 Hz. For 60 Hz operations, however, the discrepancy between oscillating flow friction factor and steady flow one was noticeable if Reynolds number was higher than 50. Second, the ineffectiveness of regenerator was directly calculated from experimental data when the cold-end was maintained around 100 K and the warm-end around 293 K, which simulates an actual operating condition of cryogenic regenerator. Influence of the operating frequency on ineffectiveness was discussed at low frequency range.