Simulation study on superposition expansion of belt electrocaloric refrigeration structure

Abstract

Electrocaloric cooling technology has revived rapidly in recent years due to the discovery of the giant electrocaloric effect. The researches on electrocaloric cooling devices reported in recent years still have the disadvantages of the small adiabatic temperature change and low cooling power. In this work, a belt electrocaloric refrigeration structure was proposed and simulated by the finite element method. The banded electrocaloric material driven by the motor passes through the hot end and the cold end successively in this device, so as to realize continuous cooling. In addition, the adiabatic temperature change and cooling power density can be increased by superimposing the unit model. Numerical study has been performed to analyze the influence of the motion speed and length of the electrocaloric module and the temperature span on refrigeration performance. The results show that the temperature span of the double-layer unit model under adiabatic condition can reach 32.68 K, which is about twice that of the single-layer unit model. When the system is operated at a temperature span of 18 K, a cooling power density of 3.56 W∙cm−2 and a percent of Carnot COP of 28.5 % are achieved for double-layer unit model.