Multi-dimensional flow simulation analysis and kriging-based optimization study on thermodynamic process mechanism of pulse tube refrigerator with displacer

Abstract

Pulse tube refrigerators with active displacers have become increasingly popular due to superior phase shift capability and avoidance of dissipation losses. However, mechanisms of thermodynamic processes within refrigerators due to variations in parameters related to critical structures and operations are not yet clear, making it difficult to optimize the comprehensive performance. In this paper, multi-dimensional flow simulation method instead of one-dimensional simulation method with poor computational accuracy is used to analyze the influence of five key parameters on performance of pulse tube refrigerators with active displacers. An intelligent optimization algorithm combined with efficient Kriging surrogate models is developed for single-objective and multi-objective optimization. Results demonstrate that the mean errors of the Kriging models for cooling capacity, total input power and performance coefficient are 1.81%, 3.94% and 3.37%. The single-objective optimization produces a maximum cooling capacity of 7.29 W and performance coefficient of 7.38%. The combined optimal solution delivers 6.65W in cooling capacity and 7.02% in performance coefficient, obtaining improvements of 150.94% and 75.94%. This study reveals the influence mechanism of key parameters on cooling performance of pulse tube refrigerators with displacers and establishes an efficient global optimization method, which is of great significance for the development of advanced refrigeration technology.