Energy conversion efficiency improvement of a Stirling type PTR for dual temperature cooling by adopting two active work-recovery phase shifters

Abstract

Deep space exploration is required to solve the problem of energy acquisition and efficient utilization. Improving energy conversion efficiency is vital to this issue. The Stirling type pulse tube refrigerators (PTR) that work in dual temperature zones play a pivotal role in the field of space detection, and the phase shifter of PTR profoundly affects the conversion efficiency of the exergy to cooling capacity. However, the typical phase shifter causes the acoustic power at the hot end of the cold finger to be dissipated into the form of heat, limiting energy efficiency. With the intention of improving the energy conversion efficiency in the PTR, a novel type of active phase shifter with work recovery on a dual temperature zone PTR is proposed and investigated in this article. Based on the pulse tube refrigerator with two separated cold fingers, inertance tubes with reservoirs, active piston phase shifters, and active work-recovery piston phase shifters have been comparatively investigated. While the refrigerator adopts active work-recovery piston phase shifters, a relative Carnot efficiency of 15.5% is obtained in the 35 K and 85 K temperature zones, which is the highest efficiency ever achieved in these temperature areas.