A High Frequency Thermoacoustically Driven Thermoacoustic-Stirling Cryocooler
E. Luo, G. Yu, S. Zhu, W. Dai
Chin. Acad. of Sci., Beijing, China
Abstract
A thermoacoustically driven pulse tube cryocooler is expected to be highly reliable due to its having no moving parts; this gives it good potential for applications in aerospace cryogenic cooling. However, because mature pulse tube cryocoolers usually operate below 100Hz, previously developed thermoacoustically driven pulse tube cryocoolers tend to be too large and heavy for aerospace cooling. One means to solve this deadlock is to increase the operating frequency of the cryocooler. In this paper, a thermoacoustically driven thermoacoustic-Stirling cryocooler operating around 500Hz is studied theoretically. The thermoacoustic-Stirling cryocooler (TASC) is a traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator with acoustical recovery. The thermodynamic analysis and optimization shows that a high frequency thermoacoustic-Stirling cryocooler can achieve a no-load temperature around 80K or even lower. In parallel, a thermoacoustic-Stirling heat engine (TASHE) for driving the TASC was also optimized; it shows excellent performance at the high operating frequency. The work provides useful guidance for future experimental prototypes.
