A Thermoacoustically Driven Pulse Tube Cooler
J. Hu, E. Luo, W. Dai
Chin. Acad. of Sci., Beijing, China
Abstract
A thermoacoustically driven pulse tube cryocooler is a new type of cryocooler. Due to its heatdriven mechanism, no moving parts, and structural simplicity, this kind of system has become a focus of recent research in the field of cryocoolers. In this work, an efficient and low frequency coupling method was employed to couple a traveling-wave thermoacoustic engine and a two-stage pulse tube cryocooler (PTC). Due to this new coupling method, the pulse tube cryocooler can obtain a higher pressure ratio than that in the thermoacoustic engine, and the system can operate with a low frequency. During tests, the cooling temperature of this pulse tube cooler reached 32K. Compared with some other pulse tube cryocoolers, the performance of this cryocooler is in fact not very good; some reasons for this are discussed.
