Abstract. Pulse tube cryocoolers are used for cooling applications, where very high reliability is required as in space applications. These cryocoolers require a buffer volume depending on the temperature to be maintained and cooling load. A miniature single stage coaxial Inertance Pulse Tube Cryocooler is proposed which operates at 80 K to provide a cooling effect of at least 2 W. In this paper a pulse tube cryocooler, with modified reservoir is suggested, where the reverse fluctuation in compressor case is used instead of a steady pressure in the reservoir to bring about the desired phase shift between the pressure and the mass flow rate in the cold heat exchanger. Therefore, the large reservoir of the cryocooler is replaced by the crank volume of the hermetically sealed linear compressor, and hence the cryocooler is simplified and compact in size. The components of the cryocooler consist of a connecting tube, aftercooler, regenerator, cold heat exchanger, flow straightener, pulse tube, warm heat exchanger, inertance tube and the modified reservoir along with the losses were designed and analyzed. Each part of the cryocooler was analysed using SAGE v11 and verified with ANSYS Fluent. The simulation results clearly show that there is 50% reduction in the reservoir volume for the modified Inertance pulse tube cryocooler.
Earlier version of an indigenously developed Pressure Wave Generator (PWG) could not develop the necessary pressure ratio to satisfactorily operate a pulse tube cooler, largely due to high blow by losses in the piston cylinder seal gap and due to a few design deficiencies. Effect of different parameters like seal gap, piston diameter, piston stroke, moving mass and the piston back volume on the performance is studied analytically. Modifications were done to the PWG based on analysis and the performance is experimentally measured. A significant improvement in PWG performance is seen as a result of the modifications. The improved PWG is tested with the same pulse tube cooler but with different inertance tube configurations. A no load temperature of 130 K is achieved with an inertance tube configuration designed using Sage software. The delivered PV power is estimated to be 28.4 W which can produce a refrigeration of about 1 W at 80 K.
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