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Design, construction and operation of a travelling-wave pulse tube refrigerator.

Author(s) : ROTUNDO S., HUGHEL G., REBARCHAK A., et al.

Summary

A low cost travelling-wave pulse tube refrigerator was designed, built, and successfully operated. The main goal of the project was to understand the working principles of such a device and attempt to build and operate the system with atmospheric air as the working medium. The authors used the thermoacoustic modelling software DeltaE effectively to design the air operated system with well defined constraints and performance parameters. The designed pulse tube components were fabricated based upon the DeltaE results and solid modelling layouts. A jig-saw was reconfigured to serve as the compressor to provide oscillating gas flow. The refrigerator was found to cool room temperature air down to about -45°C a difference of about 75°C between hot and cold regions of the pulse tube. This result is quite remarkable considering the facts that an ingenious drive for the compressor was used and that atmospheric air was used as the working medium (instead of high pressure helium). Additional tests were done using a unique regenerator comprised of stainless steel and nylon screens to help reduce the axial conduction within the regenerator. The refrigerator was then able to reach a temperature of about -60°C. This is an improvement over traditional regenerators that only use stainless screens. For the attainment of cryogenic temperatures, high power density in the pulse tube is essential. The authors' system does however, operate along the same principles and will exhibit similar behaviour, thus allowing extrapolation of what effects or improvements might be expected in a high pressure helium system. Future tests are planned with pressurized helium as the working medium.

Details

  • Original title: Design, construction and operation of a travelling-wave pulse tube refrigerator.
  • Record ID : 2008-1057
  • Languages: English
  • Publication date: 2006/06/14
  • Source: Source: Proc. 14th int. Cryocooler Conf., Annapolis, MD
    149-156; fig.; phot.; tabl.; 4 ref.

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