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Energy distribution between liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen temperatures in a Stirling/pulse tube refrigerator

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Abstract

A two-stage gas-coupled Stirling/pulse tube refrigerator (SPR), whose first and second stages respectively involve Stirling and pulse tube refrigeration cycles, is a very promising spaceborne refrigerator. The SPR has many advantages, such as a compact structure, high reliability, and high performance, and is expected to become an essential refrigerator for space applications. In research regarding gas-coupled regenerative refrigerator, the energy flow distribution between the two stages, and optimal phase difference between the pressure wave and volume flow, are two critical parameters that could widely influence refrigerator performance. The effects of displacer displacement on the pressure wave, phase difference, acoustic power distribution, and inter-stage cooling capacity shift of the SPR have been investigated experimentally. Notably, to obtain the maximum first-stage cooling capacity, an inflection point in displacement exists. When the displacer displacement is larger than the inflection point, the cooling capacity could be distributed between the first and second stages. In the present study, an SPR was designed and manufactured to work between the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen temperatures, which can be used to cool small-scale zero boil-off systems and space detectors. Under appropriate displacer displacement, the SPR can reach a no-load cooling temperature of 15.4 K and obtain 2.6 W cooling capacity at 70 K plus 0.1 W cooling capacity at 20 K with 160 W compressor input electric power.

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Abbreviations

A :

Area/m2

a 1 :

Phasor constant defined in Eq. (8)

a 2 :

Phasor constant defined in Eq. (8)

d h :

Hydraulic diameter/m

f :

Friction factor

p :

Pressure phasor/Pa

Q 1 :

First-stage cooling capacity/W

Q 2 :

Second-stage cooling capacity/W

Re :

Reynolds number

rCOP:

Relative Carnot efficiency

T :

Temperature/K

t :

Time/s

u :

Volume flow/(m3·s−1)

U RG1H :

Volume flow at the hot end of the first-stage regenerator/(m3·s−1)

U RG1H :

Volume flow at the cold end of the first-stage regenerator/(m3·s−1)

U RG2H :

Volume flow at the hot end of the second-stage regenerator/(m3·s−1)

U RG2L :

Volume flow at the cold end of the second-stage regenerator/ (m3·s−1)

U PTH :

Volume flow at the hot end of the pulse tube/(m3·s−1)

V :

Volume/m3

V cm :

Dead volume of the compressor space/m3

V dm :

Dead volume of the displacer space/m3

W :

Work power/W

X :

Displacement/m

X :

Displacement phasor/m

α :

Swept volume ratio between compressor and displacer

δ :

Uncertainty

ω :

Angular frequency/(deg·s−1)

θ :

Phase angle/(°)

ρ :

Density/(kg·m−3)

c :

Compressor

d :

Displacer

L1:

The first stage

L2:

The second stage

m :

Mean value

p :

Pressure wave

∣ ∣:

Magnitude of phasor

〈 · 〉:

Time average

Re[ ]:

Real part

Im[ ]:

Imaginary part

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51806231), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB35000000, XDB35040102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200083, China

    Kongkuai Ying, Wang Yin, Yinong Wu & Zhenhua Jiang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Kongkuai Ying, Wang Yin, Yinong Wu & Zhenhua Jiang

  3. Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200083, China

    Jiantang Song & Shaoshuai Liu

  4. Nantong Academy of Intelligent Sensing, Zilang Technology Science and Technology City, Nantong, 226000, China

    Haifeng Zhu

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  1. Kongkuai Ying
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Correspondence to Yinong Wu, Zhenhua Jiang or Shaoshuai Liu.

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Ying, K., Yin, W., Wu, Y. et al. Energy distribution between liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen temperatures in a Stirling/pulse tube refrigerator. Front. Energy 17, 516–526 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-022-0844-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-022-0844-6

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