Numerical study of a gas coupled VM-PT hybrid cryocooler using 3He as the working fluid

[摘要] The two-stage Vuilleumier gas-coupling pulse tube cryocooler (VM-PT) is one kind of novel low-frequency cryocoolers. In this gas-coupled form, the single stage Vuilleumier cryocooler serves as both pressure wave generator and a pre-cooler for coaxial pulse tube. Compared with the most commercialized GM and GM pulse tube cryocooler, the two-stage VM-PT cryocooler is characterized by its high stability, compact size and thermal actuation which are indispensable for space application. It has already been verified experimentally that this cryocooler can obtain 9.75mW@4.2K and the lowest no-load temperature 3.39K when4He as the working fluid. However, such refrigerating capacity seems not enough for further application.3He as a more potential substitution of4He has better physical properties to improve performance, which has been studied in GM type and Stirling pulse tube cryocooler. For further optimization, a numerical study on the specific performance of two-stage VM-PT cryocooler using3He is carried out in the present paper though Sage software. Working at the frequency of 1.0Hz and the pressure of 0.8MPa, the two-stage VM-PT cryocooler with3He obtained 50mW@4.06K. The usage of3He was 0.0038kg, about 30L under STP. At 4.2K, using3He can obtain 58mW cooling power and 0.49% relative Carnot efficiency, about 1.6 times higher than using4He.

[发布机构] CAS Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Beijing; 100049, China^1;University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing; 100049, China^2

[效力级别] 物理学 [学科分类] 材料科学（综合）

[关键词] Carnot efficiency;Cooling power;Improve performance;Pressure wave generators;Pulse tube cryocoolers;Refrigerating capacity;Stirling pulse tube cryocooler;Thermal actuation