Investigation of regenerator mesh characteristics for a pulse tube cryocooler

Abstract

An investigation of regenerator mesh characteristics on a Pulse tube cryocooler’s performance is conducted using Sage V11 software. The cryocooler operates between temperatures of 300 K and 80 K. The components of the cryocooler are free piston linear compressor, aftercooler, regenerator, pulse tube, warm heat exchanger, and inertance tube- bounce space as the phase shifter. The performance of the regenerative cryocoolers depends on the regenerator. The regenerator of this cryocooler consists of a stack of stainless steel meshes. In this paper, a comparison of regenerator stainless steel meshes with mesh number #200, #300, #400, #500 and its combinations were analysed. To choose the best multi mesh combination, the length of the individual meshes is varied so that the total length of the regenerator is unchanged. The performance was analysed based on the Coeffcient of Performance of cryocooler for single mesh type and mesh combinations (combination two) at acceptor temperature of 80 K. The maximum performance with single mesh was with #400 mesh with COP of 6.12%. The cryocooler’s maximum Coeffcient of Performance was with the combination of #400 and #500 meshes in the regenerator. The best multi mesh combination gave 4.071 W cooling power with an input power of 61.92 W with a COP of 6.57%. There was an improvement of 7.26% with the use of multiple mesh regenerator.