Intermediate cooling from pulse tube and regenerator in a 4 K pulse tube cryocooler

This paper introduces intermediate cooling by thermally attaching heat exchangers on the second stage pulse tube and regenerator in a commercial 4 K pulse tube cryocooler. Due to the large enthalpy flow in the 2nd stage pulse tube and regenerator, both intermediate heat exchangers on the pulse tube and regenerator can provide cooling capacities in the temperature range of 5–15 K without or with minor effect on the performance of the 4 K stage. Extracting cooling capacity from the pulse tube or regenerator reduces the 1st stage cooling performance in the present study. The joint intermediate heat exchanger on the pulse tube and regenerator has demonstrated promising results for applications.     

A two-stage Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler with a cold inertance tube

A thermally coupled two-stage Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler (PTC) with inertance tubes as phase shifters has been designed, manufactured and tested. In order to obtain a larger phase shift at the low acoustic power of about 2.0 W, a cold inertance tube as well as a cold reservoir for the second stage, precooled by the cold end of the first stage, was introduced into the system. The transmission line model was used to calculate the phase shift produced by the cold inertance tube. Effect of regenerator material, geometry and charging pressure on the performance of the second stage of the two-stage PTC was investigated based on the well known regenerator model REGEN. Experimental results of the two-stage PTC were carried out with an emphasis on the performance of the second stage. A lowest cooling temperature of 23.7 K and 0.50 W at 33.9 K were obtained with an input electric power of 150.0 W and an operating frequency of 40 Hz.     

Study on a 10 W/90 K in-line pulse tube cryocooler

A Stirling-type in-line pulse tube cryocooler (PTC) has been designed, built and tested at Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics (SITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. This PTC prototype can obtain a low-noise cooling capacity of more than 10 W at around 90 K cold head temperature and is used for cooling a space-borne infrared photo detector. In order to achieve a highly efficient PTC, a simplified numerical simulation model has been established for design and optimization. The simulation results of the regenerator, pulse tube and inertance tube are analyzed in detail. Besides, some key parameters of the PTC are listed in the paper. The PTC’s performances are tested at different operating frequencies from 42 Hz to 55 Hz and its reject temperature dependence is observed in the range of 290 K to 320 K. Furthermore, the map of the PTC’s performance characteristics is presented.     

Investigation on phase shifting for a 4 K Stirling pulse tube cryocooler with He-3 as working fluid

He-3 is generally recognized for its ability to provide more excellent thermophysical performance than He-4, especially in the 4 K temperature range. However, this was not always the case in our preliminary experiments on a three-stage Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler (SPTC). Our ongoing studies, as reported in this paper, demonstrate that the different working fluids also affect the performance through their phase shifting capability. This feature has been passed over in large part by researchers considering refrigerant substitution. Unlike previous theoretical analyses that focus primarily on regenerator losses, this report investigates the effects of the working fluid on the phase angle at the cold end in order to quantitatively reveal the relationship between the lowest attainable temperature and the cooling capacity. The analysis agrees well with our experimental results on a three-stage SPTC. While running with the operating parameters optimized for He-3, the lowest temperature of the SPTC decreased from 5.4 K down to 4.03 K. This is the lowest refrigeration temperature ever achieved with a three-stage SPTC.     

Design and experimental investigation of the high efficiency 1.5 W/4.2 K pneumatic-drive G-M cryocooler

The development of a high cooling power and high efficiency 4.2 K two stage G-M cryocooler is critically important given its broad applications in low temperature superconductors, MRI, infrared detector and cryogenic electronics. A high efficiency 1.5 W/4.2 K pneumatic-drive G-M cryocooler has recently been designed and developed by ARS. The effect of expansion volume rate and operation conditions on the cooling performance has been experimentally investigated. A typical cooling performance of 1.5 W/4.2 K has been achieved, and the minimum temperature of the second stage is 2.46 K. The steady input power of the compressor at 60 Hz is 6.8 kW, while the operation speed of the rotary valve is 30 rpm. A maximum cooling power of 1.75 W/4.2 K has been obtained in test runs.     

A closed-cycle 1 K refrigeration cryostat

A 1 K closed-cycle cryostat has been developed to provide continuous cooling to a photon detector below 2 K. A two-stage 4 K pulse tube cryocooler is used to liquefy evacuated vapor from a 1 K pumping port to form a closed-cycle refrigeration loop. A 1 K instrumentation chamber, attached to the 1 K cooling station, is designed to operate with helium inside and provide more uniform cooling. The design of the cryostat has no direct mechanical contact between the pulse tube cryocooler heat exchangers and the 1 K cooling station resulting in almost no vibration transfer to instrumentation chamber. The cryostat can reach a no-load temperature of 1.62 K and provide 250 mW cooling power at 1.84 K.     

CFD modeling and experimental verification of a single-stage coaxial Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler without either double-inlet or multi-bypass operating at 30–35 K using mixed stainless steel mesh regenerator matrices

This paper presents the CFD modeling and experimental verifications of a single-stage inertance tube coaxial Stirling-type pulse tube cryocooler operating at 30–35 K using mixed stainless steel mesh regenerator matrices without either double-inlet or multi-bypass. A two-dimensional axis-symmetric CFD model with the thermal non-equilibrium mode is developed to simulate the internal process, and the underlying mechanism of significantly reducing the regenerator losses with mixed matrices is discussed in detail based on the given six cases. The modeling also indicates that the combination of the given different mesh segments can be optimized to achieve the highest cooling efficiency or the largest exergy ratio, and then the verification experiments are conducted in which the satisfactory agreements between simulated and tested results are observed. The experiments achieve a no-load temperature of 27.2 K and the cooling power of 0.78 W at 35 K, or 0.29 W at 30 K, with an input electric power of 220 W and a reject temperature of 300 K.     

Attractive performance of a Gifford–McMahon cryocooler by co-axial layout of regenerator materials

A novel filling method of regenerator materials, which we name a co-axial layout, is experimentally investigated. The 2nd stage regenerator of a Gifford–McMahon cryocooler was packed with 50% by volume of the co-axial layout (low temperature side) that consisted of 20% Gd₂O₂S and 30% HoCu₂ spheres. The warm temperature side was packed with 50% lead spheres as a single layer. The experimental results show that the cooling power of co-axial layout is almost the same as that of a three-layer layout, 20% Gd₂O₂S, 30% HoCu₂ and 50% lead, at temperatures between the ultimate low temperature (3.0 K) and 6 K. Moreover, at the temperatures above 10 K, the co-axial layout has 1.7–2.0 times the cooling power of the three-layer layout. Thus the co-axial layout produces a major improvement in cooling power. In this paper, the performance of five types of material assortments is discussed.     

Second law based modeling to optimum design of high capacity pulse tube refrigerators

The optimum design of a high capacity double inlet pulse tube refrigerator based on second law of thermodynamics has been presented in this paper. Second law is applied to calculate the work loss in the regenerator and to optimize the cryocooler performance. To investigate the behavior of the pulse tube refrigerator, mass and energy balance equations are applied to several control volumes of the cryocooler cycle. A complete system of conservation equations is employed to solve the regenerator analytically. The proposed model reports the cooling capacity of 110 W at 80 K cold end temperature at frequency of 50 Hz, orifice conductance of 0.4 and double inlet coefficient of 0.6, with 2.4 kW net power delivered to the gas. In this case, the entropy generation in the gas phase is dominant which is contributing more than 85% of the total lost work in the regenerator. The optimum thermal efficiency of 99.1% was achieved at a proper mesh number. However, the second law efficiency is reported to have an inverse behavior at this mesh number.     

High-capacity 60 K single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocoolers

A high-capacity single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocooler operating at around 60 K has been developed to provide the appropriate cooling for the next-generation very-large-scale long wave infrared focal plane arrays under development. The application background and cooler design process are described, and the performance characteristics are presented. At present, the cooler typically provides 4.06 W at 60 K with the input power of 180 W at 300 K reject temperature. 4.72 W can also be achieved when the input power increases to 200 W, and over 9.4% of Carnot efficiency at 60 K has been realized. The larger pulse tube diameter of 14.2 mm is used and the evident orientation sensitivity is observed in the range of 55–65 Hz. The experiments also observe the obvious reject temperature dependence.     

10 W/90 K single-stage pulse tube cryocoolers

A single-stage 10 W/90 K coaxial pulse tube cryocooler has been developed for space-borne optics cooling. The design considerations are described, and the optimizations on the double-segmented inertance tubes are presented. The preliminary engineering model (EM) of the cooler has been worked out, which typically provides the cooling of 10 W at 90 K with the input power of 175.6 W at 310 K reject temperature, and achieves around 14% of Carnot efficiency at 90 K. The reject temperature dependence experiments on the EM show a smaller slope of 10.2 W/10 K and indicate a good adaptability to the reject temperature range from 290 K to 333 K.     

Experimental study of one-stage VM cryocooler operating below 8 K

The Vuilleumier (VM) refrigerator, known as heat driven refrigerator, is one kind of closed-cycle Stirling type regenerative refrigerator. The VM refrigerator with power being supplied by liquid nitrogen was proposed by Hogen and developed by Zhou, which shows great potential for development below 10 K. This paper describes the experimental development of a VM cryocooler operating below 8 K, which was achieved by using liquid nitrogen as a heat sink of middle cavity. The regenerator was optimized by using a part of metallic magnetic regenerator material Er₃Ni to replace the lead sphere and a no-load temperature of 7.8 K was obtained. Then all the lead spheres were replaced by Er_0.6Pr_0.4 material and a no-load temperature of 7.35 K was obtained, which is the lowest temperature for this kind of refrigerator reported so far. The cooling power at 10 K is about 500 mW with a pressure ratio near 1.6 and a charge pressure of 1.8 MPa. Especially, the magnetic material Er_0.6Pr_0.4 was found to be a potential substitution for the conventional lead.     

18.6 K single-stage high frequency multi-bypass coaxial pulse tube cryocooler

A single-stage high frequency multi-bypass coaxial pulse tube cryocooler (PTC) has been developed for physical experiments. The performance characteristics are presented. At present, the cooler has reached the lowest temperature of 18.6 K with an electric input power of 268 W, which is the reported lowest temperature for single-stage high frequency PTC. The cooler typically provides 0.2 W at 20.6 K and 0.5 W at 24.1 K with the input power of 260 W at 300 K ambient temperature. The cooperation phase adjustment method of multi-bypass and double-inlet shows its advantages in experiments, they might be the best way to get temperature below 20 K for single-stage high frequency PTC. The temperature stability of the developed PTC is also observed.     

Design and experimental investigation of a cryogenic system for environmental test applications

This paper is concerned with the design, development and performance testing of a cryogenic system for use in high cooling power instruments for ground-based environmental testing. The system provides a powerful tool for a combined environmental test that consists of high pressure and cryogenic temperatures. Typical cryogenic conditions are liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LO2), which are used in many fields. The cooling energy of liquid nitrogen (LN2) and liquid helium (LHe) is transferred to the specimen by a closed loop of helium cycle. In order to minimize the consumption of the LHe, the optimal design of heat recovery exchangers has been used in the system. The behavior of the system is discussed based on experimental data of temperature and pressure. The results show that the temperature range from room temperature to LN2 temperature can be achieved by using LN2, the pressurization process is stable and the high test pressure is maintained. Lower temperatures, below 77 K, can also be obtained with LHe cooling, the typical cooling time is 40 min from 90 K to 22 K. Stable temperatures of 22 K at the inlet of the specimen have been observed, and the system in this work can deliver to the load a cooling power of several hundred watts at a pressure of 0.58 MPa.     

Design and prototyping of a large capacity high frequency pulse tube

This document describes the design and the prototyping performed at CEA/SBT in partnership with AIR LIQUIDE of a high frequency large cooling power pulse tube. Driven at 58 Hz by a 7.5 kW flexure bearing pressure wave generator, this system provides a net heat lift of 210 W at 65 K. The phase shift is obtained by an inertance and a buffer volume. This type of cryogenic cooler can be used for on site gas liquefaction or drilling site and for high temperature superconductivity power device cooling (transmission lines, large generators, fault current limiters).In this paper, we focus on two essential points, the regenerator and the flow straightener. The regenerator is a key component for good performance of the pulse tube cooler. It must have a large thermal inertia, a low dead volume, a good heat transfer gas/matrix and at the same time, small pressure drop. In the present case and unlike typical moderate cooling power pulse tubes, the regenerator is very compact. However, the resulting conductive losses remain negligible compared to the cooling power targeted. The goal of the flow straightener is to avoid as much as possible any jet stream effect and to guarantee the uniformity of the velocity field at both ends of the pulse tube. Indeed multi-dimensional flow effects can significantly impact the performances of the machine.     

Cryogenic infrared mission “JAXA/SPICA” with advanced cryocoolers

Since the next cryogenic infrared mission “JAXA/SPICA” employs advanced mechanical cryocoolers with effective radiant cooling in place of cryogen, the primary mirror, 3.5 m in diameter, and the optical bench can be maintained at 4.5 K for at least 5 years. First, the feasibility of the thermal design of the cryogenic system is presented. A 20 K-class Stirling cryocooler was then improved in cooling capacity and reliability for the mission, and the effects of contaminated working gas or new regenerator materials on cooling performance were investigated. Development of a new ³He-JT (Joule–Thomson) cryocooler for use at 1.7 K is also described, along with the successful results of a cooling capacity higher than the required 10 mW. A 4 K-class cryocooler was modified and developed for higher reliability over a five-year operational life and a higher cooling capacity exceeding the current 30 mW. Finally, we discuss a system for heat rejection from cryocoolers using thermal control devices.     

Influence of the connecting tube at the cold end in a U-shaped pulse tube cryocooler

In some special applications, the pulse tube cryocooler must be designed as U-shape; however, the connecting tube at the cold end will influence the cooling performance. Although lots of U-shape pulse tubes have been developed, the mechanism of the influence of the connecting tube on the performance has not been well demonstrated. Based on thermoacoustic theory, this paper discusses the influence of the length and diameter of the connecting tube, transition structure, flow straightener, impedance of the inertance tube, etc. on the cooling performance. Primary experiments were carried out in two in-line shape pulse tube cryocoolers to verify the analysis. The two cryocoolers shared the same regenerator, heat exchangers, inertance tube and straightener, and the pulse tube, so the influence of these components could be eliminated. With the same electric power, the pulse tube cryocooler without connecting parts obtained 31 W cooling power at 77 K; meanwhile, the other pulse tube cryocooler with the connecting parts only obtained 27 W, so the connecting tube induced more than a 12.9% decrease on the cooling performance, which agrees with the calculation quite well.     

Operating characteristics of a single-stage Stirling cryocooler capable of providing 700 W cooling power at 77 K

High cooling capacity Stirling cryocooler generally has hundreds to thousands watts of cooling power at liquid nitrogen temperature. It is promising in boil-off gas (BOG) recondensation and high temperature superconducting (HTS) applications. A high cooling capacity Stirling cryocooler driven by a crank-rod mechanism was developed and studied systematically. The pressure and frequency characteristics of the cryocooler, the heat rejection from the ambient heat exchanger, and the cooling performance are studied under different charging pressure. Energy conversion and distribution in the cryocooler are analyzed theoretically. With an electric input power of 10.9 kW and a rotating speed of 1450 r/min of the motor, a cooling power of 700 W at 77 K and a relative Carnot efficiency of 18.2% of the cryocooler have been achieved in the present study, and the corresponding pressure ratio in the compression space reaches 2.46.     

Baseline design of a sorption-based Joule-Thomson cooler chain for the METIS instrument in the E-ELT

METIS, the Mid-Infrared E-ELT Imager and Spectrograph, is one of the proposed instruments in E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope). Its infrared detectors require multiple operating temperatures below 77 K. Therefore, active coolers have to be deployed to provide sub-liquid-nitrogen (sub-LN2) temperature cooling. However, the sensitive imaging optical detecting system also demands very low levels of vibration. Thus, the University of Twente proposed a vibration-free cooling technique based on physical sorption. In this paper, we describe the baseline design of such a sorption-based Joule-Thomson cooler chain for the METIS instrument, that is able to deliver cooling powers of 0.4 W at 8 K, 1.1 W at 25 K and 1.4 W at 40 K from a 70-K heat sinking. This design is based on working fluid selection, cascading cooler stages and operating parameter optimization. Also, the performance of the resulting cooler design is analyzed.     

Development of mechanical cryocoolers for the cooling system of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer onboard Astro-H

Astro-H is the Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite planned for launch in 2014. The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard Astro-H, is a high energy resolution spectrometer utilizing an X-ray micro-calorimeter array, which is operated at 50 mK by the ADR with the 30-L superfluid liquid helium (LHe). The mechanical cryocoolers, 4 K-class Joule Thomson (JT) cooler and 20 K-class double-staged Stirling (2ST) cooler are key components to achieve a LHe lifetime for over 3 years in orbit (5 years as a goal). Based on the existing cryocoolers onboard Akari (2006) and JEM/SMILES (2009), modifications for higher cooling power and reliability had been investigated. In the present development phase, the Engineering Models (EMs) of these upgraded cryocoolers are fabricated to carry out verification tests for cooling performance, mechanical performance and lifetime. Nominal cooling power of 200 mW at 20 K for the 2ST cooler and 40 mW at 4.5 K for the JT cooler were demonstrated with temperature and power margin. Mechanical performance test for the 2ST cooler units proves tolerability for pyro shock and vibration environment of the Astro-H criteria. Continuous running of the 4 K-class JT cooler combined with the 2ST precooler for lifetime test has achieved over 5000 h without any degradation of cooling performance.