Design of non-flammable mixed refrigerant Joule-Thomson refrigerator for precooling stage of high temperature superconducting power cable

A cryogenic Joule-Thomson (JT) refrigerator has many advantages for large industrial applications, including easy cooling power adjustability and high reliability because there are no moving parts at low temperature. In this paper, a single stage and a cascade type of non-flammable (NF) mixed refrigerant (MR) JT refrigerators have been proposed for the precooling process of a neon/nitrogen mixed refrigerant JT refrigerator. The neon/nitrogen MR JT refrigerator is used to maintain a subcooled state of liquid nitrogen coolant for an HTS (high temperature superconductor) cable.Both selected MRs for the 1st stage (low temperature cycle) of the cascade MR JT refrigerator and the single MR JT refrigerator are composed of Nitrogen (N₂), Argon (Ar), Tetrafluoromethane (CF₄, R14) and Octafluoropropane (C₃F₈, R218). R410A is selected as the refrigerant for the 2nd stage (high temperature cycle) of the cascade MR JT refrigerator, of which the cooling temperature is approximately 240 K. A commercial software with Peng-Robinson equation of state (EOS) is utilized to design the non-flammable MR JT refrigerator. The optimal design is discussed with consideration for various parameters such as the temperature staging, the operating pressure of the compressor and the mass flow rate of the working fluid. The maximum coefficient of performance (COP) and Carnot efficiency of the cascade MR JT refrigerator are obtained as 0.216 and 40%, respectively at 105 K. Exergy analysis is also carried out in this paper to reveal the irreversibility of the refrigeration cycle.     

Design of high-efficiency Joule-Thomson cycles for high-temperature superconductor power cable cooling

Liquid nitrogen (LN₂) is commonly used as the coolant of a high temperature superconductor (HTS) power cable. The LN₂ is continuously cooled by a subcooler to maintain an appropriate operating temperature of the cable. This paper proposes two Joule-Thomson (JT) refrigeration cycles for subcooling the LN₂ coolant by using nitrogen itself as the working fluid. Additionally, an innovative HTS cooling cycle, of which the cable coolant and the refrigerant are unified and supplied from the same source, is suggested and analyzed in detail. Among these cycles, the highest COP is obtained in the JT cycle with a vacuum pump (Cycle A) which is 0.115 at 78 K, and the Carnot efficiency is 32.8%. The integrated HTS cooling cycle (Cycle C) can reach the maximum COP of 0.087, and the Carnot efficiency of 24.8%. Although Cycle C has a relatively low cycle efficiency when compared to that of the separated refrigeration cycle, it can be a good alternative in engineering applications, because the assembled hardware has few machinery components in a more compact configuration than the other cycles.     

An efficient multi-stage Brayton–JT cycle for liquefaction of natural gas

Combined multi-stage Brayton–JT refrigeration cycles are investigated as a governmental effort in Korea to develop an original liquefaction process of natural gas in accordance with recent demand of higher efficiency and larger capacity. Based upon thermodynamic optimization theory, a combined refrigeration system is proposed with nitrogen (N2) Brayton cycle, ethylene (C2) JT cycle, and propane (C3) JT cycles, which are used for cooling the feed gas in a series of heat exchangers. Since no mixed refrigerants are used, this system is simple in operation and robust in reliability. A complete cycle design is presented to confirm its feasibility and estimate the liquefaction performance. It is expected that the proposed N2–C2–C3 cycle could have a reasonably high efficiency and the potential of great liquefaction capacity. Next steps are underway for patent application and practical process development.     

Effect of mixture composition and hardware on the performance of a single stage JT refrigerator

The specific refrigeration effect that can be obtained in a single stage mixed refrigerant Joule–Thomson refrigerator is strongly dependent on the composition of mixture used. Comprehensive methods have been developed over the last two decades to determine the mixture composition that results in the highest exergy efficiency or the refrigeration produced. However, what is not well known is the relationship between the mixture composition and the hardware, which ultimately decides the performance of the refrigerator. Experiments were conducted with seven different nitrogen–hydrocarbon mixtures in a single stage JT refrigerator to understand the effect of both composition and hardware on the performance of the refrigerator, the results of which are presented in this paper.     

Performance analysis and optimization of high capacity pulse tube refrigerator

High capacity pulse tube refrigerator (HCPTR) is a new generation of cryocoolers tailored to provide more than 250 W of cooling power at cryogenic temperatures. The most important characteristics of HCPTR when compared to other types of pulse tube refrigerators are a powerful pressure wave generator, and an accurate design. In this paper the influence of geometrical and operating parameters on the performance of a double inlet pulse tube refrigerator (DIPTR) is studied. The model is validated with the existing experimental data. As a result of this optimization, a new configuration of HCPTR is proposed. This configuration provides 335 W at 80 K cold end temperature with a frequency of 50 Hz and COP of 0.05.     

Stirling-type pulse tube refrigerator with slit-type heat exchangers for HTS superconducting motor

A cryogenic refrigeration system is one of the indispensable components for cooling superconducting motor or generator. Among various configurations of cryogenic refrigeration system, the on-board refrigeration system is considered to be attractive for compactness and small heat leak. In order to turn this concept into reality, we focus on two essential points; development of the specific structure for on-board refrigeration and optimal design of the refrigerator. Since the on-board refrigeration system should not create unbalanced vibration, the inline Stirling-type pulse tube refrigerator is considered as a good candidate and more concrete and efficient structure is developed under the design constraints. The dynamic absorber is used to maintain the dynamic stability of the single acting linear compressor. To increase thermal Carnot efficiency with the on-board Stirling-type pulse tube refrigerator, slit-type heat exchangers are implemented and flow straighteners are carefully designed by the three-dimensional CFD simulation. The overall configuration of the Stirling-type pulse tube refrigerator is designed and fabricated by the optimal process. The present on-board refrigerator has the cooling capacity of 7 W at 59.5 K with the Carnot efficiency of 10.9%. According to these experimental results, the pulse tube refrigerator as the on-board refrigeration system possesses a sufficient thermal efficiency despite the restricted design configuration. The on-board refrigeration is considered as a useful method for cooling HTS superconducting motor.     

Performance optimization for two-stage thermoelectric refrigerator system driven by two-stage thermoelectric generator

A new configuration of combined thermoelectric device, two-stage thermoelectric refrigerator driven by two-stage thermoelectric generator, is proposed in this paper. The thermodynamic model of the combined device is built by using non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory. The analytical formulae for the stable working electrical current, the cooling load versus the working electrical current, and the coefficient of performance (COP) versus the working electrical current of the combined device are derived. For the fixed total number of thermoelectric elements of the combined device, the allocations of the thermoelectric element pairs among the two thermoelectric generators and the two thermoelectric refrigerators are optimized for maximum cooling load and COP, respectively. The influences of the heat source temperature of the two-stage thermoelectric generator and the heat source (cooling space) temperature of the two-stage thermoelectric refrigerator on the optimal performance of the combined thermoelectric device are analyzed by detailed numerical examples.     

冷却高温超导磁体的大冷量单级G-M制冷机

随着高温超导磁体在电工技术方面日益广泛的应用，如高温超导限流器、高温超导变压器、高温超导储能系统等。对工作在30K～40K、并可提供50W～100W制冷量的低温制冷机提出了需求。常规的单、双级G-M制冷机产品不能满足高温超导磁体的冷却要求，本文初步得到了提高单级G-M制冷机性能、增大40K温度以下制冷量的方法，并在一台常规单级G-M制冷机上验证，获得了30W/40K制冷量的好结果，指明了研制这种大冷量G-M制冷机的方向，为成功研制冷却高温超导磁体的大冷量单级G-M制冷机走出了第一步。     

An ammonia-water absorption refrigerator with a large temperature lift for combined heating and cooling

The COP (Coefficient of Performance) of an ammonia-water absorption refrigerator can be significantly improved by incorporating a mixing column and a second absorber which is combined with a two-stage refrigerant expansion. At an internal temperature lift of 85 K (−20°C to + 65°C), these modifications result in a 50% higher COP for cooling—assuming ideal components. With real components, a 40% improvement may be achieved. The proposed cycle was realised in a laboratory test plant with a refrigeration capacity of 10 kW at −20°C evaporator temperature. This machine was operated at a solution temperature up to 225°C and a condenser temperature of 65°C corresponding to a pressure up to 3.0 MPa. COP versus temperature lift and load behaviour was tested. A COP of 0.38 was achieved at a temperature lift of 85 K. An efficient high-temperature lift cycle like that described in this paper may find applications for deep freezing, as a topping cycle to achieve triple-effect performance, or as a device to produce simultaneous heating and cooling.     

Investigation of ejector-equipped Joule–Thomson refrigerator operating below 77 K

The lowest attainable refrigeration temperature of a nitrogen based Joule–Thomson refrigerator is generally limited to 77 K since the compressor suction pressure is usually higher than atmospheric pressure. The Joule–Thomson process with an ejector is proposed to achieve a refrigeration temperature as low as 68 K by adjusting the evaporation pressure down to 28 kPa and boosting the return stream pressure up to 147 kPa. A one-dimensional numerical model is developed to predict the performance of the ejector at cryogenic temperature, and its accuracy is compared with experimental data. The analysis results show that the addition of the ejector in the Joule–Thomson refrigeration cycle increases up to 5 times the overall efficiency, where the maximum achievable COP and exergy efficiency are 0.0195 and 6.65%, respectively. Other featured advantages of the proposed Joule–Thomson refrigeration cycle with ejector are the simplicity of cycle, minimization of mechanical moving components, cost effectiveness, and high reliability compared to other cryogenic refrigeration methods using pumps or cold compressors in Joule–Thomson cycles.     

High-power Stirling-type pulse tube cooler working below 30 K

High-power Stirling-type pulse tube coolers (PTCs) are promising candidates for cooling HTS devices and gas liquefaction or separation applications. Nevertheless, till now most high-power Stirling-type PTCs are not able to reach a refrigeration temperature below 35 K. Here, a high-power two-stage Stirling-type PTC was designed, manufactured and experimentally investigated. In order to realize a convenient coupling with a thermal load, U-shape configuration is adopted in both stages, which makes it more challenging to distribute the gas flow and reduce dead volume in the cold end heat exchanger. By optimizing operating conditions, flow straightener, and double-inlet opening, the cooler has reached no-load refrigeration temperatures of 29.6 K and 27.1 K at 55 Hz and 40 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, the cooler is able to provide cooling powers of 50 W at 45.6 K and 100 W at 59.3 K when input pV powers are 4.77 kW and 4.59 kW, respectively.     

Investigation on a Stirling refrigerator with thermal buffer tube driven by an oil-lubricated compressor

In this article, a special configuration of Stirling refrigerator for domestic refrigeration purpose is introduced. A thermal buffer tube is installed between the refrigerator cold-end and the expansion piston to improve the system reliability by moving the expansion piston from low temperature to ambient temperature. Furthermore, a commercial oil-lubricated dual-piston compressor is modified to drive the refrigerator, inside which an elastic membrane is used to transfer acoustic work and separate the working gas of the refrigerator from that of the compressor. Experimental investigations on the refrigerator are performed using helium as the working fluid and a cooling power of 200 W at −78 °C is achieved at 15 Hz working frequency and 2.5 MPa mean pressure. Meanwhile, a rough estimation of the refrigerator COP in terms of cooling power divided by input acoustic power gives the value of 0.64. It gives the possibility of building a low-cost, high efficiency domestic refrigerator.     

新型热声制冷-双作用行波热声制冷机热力特性的数值模拟研究

对一种新型热声制冷系统—双作用行波热声制冷机进行了研究,设计了一台在气液双作用行波热声发动机上使用的行波制冷机,并通过数值模拟优化了制冷机的结构尺寸。在环境温度300K,制冷温度250K的条件下,新型的双作用制冷机的COP达到了2.74,相对卡诺效率接近60%,声功消耗为534W,制冷量为1464.9W。通过对传统的斯特林制冷机及不同结构的行波制冷机计算比较。结果表明:从压比、效率、制冷量等多角度考察,新型的双作用行波制冷机更适合与气液双作用行波热声发动机耦合工作。它具有潜在的高效率、热驱动及无运动部件的优点,非常有潜力成为常规制冷方式的一种替代技术。     

低温制冷机的性能评价

作为对制冷系数COP概念的补充,建议采用yong效率（Exergy Efficien-cy）的概念来综合评价多级低温制冷机的性能,同时也为其性能优化过程提供理论指导。本文还以yong效率为基础,综合评价了4.2K和80K温区低温制冷机的发展水平,具有一定参考价值。     

Passive coolers for pre-cooling of JT loops for deep space infrared imaging applications

Infrared instruments (IR) for deep space imaging missions, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Planck, require cryogenic cooling for proper operation of their focal plane arrays (FPA) in far infrared and sub-millimeter wavelength ranges. The FPA is sometimes located meters away from the spacecraft. To meet such remote cooling requirement, a Joule-Thomson (J-T) loop becomes a convenient choice for either direct cooling for the FPA or for serving as a heat sink for a cascade cooling system. The refrigerant lines of the JT loop inevitably suffer parasitic heat leak primarily due to IR backload as they traverse from the spacecraft to the FPA. An actively cooled JT loop using a mechanical pre-cooler located at the spacecraft will experience the highest parasitic heat leak since the lines are cold through the entire length whereas a passively cooled JT loop can utilize a number of radiators to cool the lines down gradually in stages and hence reduce the heat leak. In addition to savings in power and mass, a passive cooler offers consistent and predictable performance with practically no performance degradation in a thermally stable orbit, such as one around the Sun-Earth L2 point. Passive coolers are less popular in low temperature applications when their cooling capacity diminishes rapidly in proportion to T4 until the temperature reaches a point where either the parasitic heat leak becomes so significant or its size becomes so excessive that the passive cooling scheme becomes impractical. Despite the limited capacity, passive cooling may still prove to be a viable alternative to active cooling depending on the operating temperature and heat dissipation rate of the FPA. The current effort aims at evaluating the merit of using passive coolers as an alternative to using a mechanical cooler for pre-cooling of a JT loop for remote IR instrument cooling. A parametric study is conducted to explore the merits of passive cooling of a JT loop in a temperature range below 30 K. Correlations between cooling capacity, heat leak from supporting structure, and the operating temperature are investigated to provide design guidelines. Radiator staging options will also be presented and discussed.     

混合工质脉管制冷的热力学性能预测

提出了用于预测混合工质脉管制冷热力学性能的改进型Brayton制冷循环,建立了制冷系统制冷量和制冷系数COP的理论表达式。在对多种低温流体的预测计算的基础上,提出了具有应用潜力的混合工质对。计算结果表明,如果用10%氮与90%氦的混合工质对代替纯氦,脉管制冷机在80K温度下的制冷系数和制冷量分别可以提高9.5%和6.7%。此外还讨论了其它可能用于80K温区脉管制冷的混合工质对,如氢-氦、氩-氦、氖-氦混合物等。     

Improving the performance of small Joule–Thomson cryocooler

This paper presents a new cycle for improving the performance of small Joule–Thomson (JT) cryocooler by applying an additional ejector in cycle system. Based on the presented JT cycle with an additional ejector (JTE), the performance of small JT cryocooler operating with pure N₂ and the mixture N₂?CH₄ for cryogenic applications in a temperature range of 80–130 K is investigated by theoretical calculations. It can be found that the refrigeration efficiency of the JTE cryocooler operating with pure N₂ increase by 55.6–25.1%, and the refrigeration capacity increase by a factor of 4.9–1.5 compared to a conventional JT cryocooler. Similar performance improvements are also obtained when the mixture N₂?CH₄ is used as the working gas. The refrigeration efficiency increase by 46.6–17.7% and the refrigeration capacity increase by a factor of 3.8–1.3. It is concluded that the performance of small JT cryocooler can be significantly improved based on the presented JTE cycle.     

热桥传热特性对热耦合二级Stirling型脉管制冷机性能的影响

级间热桥的传热特性对于热耦合型多级脉管制冷机的制冷温度和制冷效率均具有重要影响。采用铜丝编织带和铜箔连接的3种热桥进行对比实验，研究了热桥的传热特性对热耦合二级Stirling型脉管制冷机性能的影响。采用改进后的热桥，以氦气作为工质，在总输入电功率为400W，以及优化的工作频率和充气压力条件下，热耦合二级Stirling型脉管制冷机实现了12．96K的无负荷制冷温度，并可同时在23．1K和100．8K分别提供0．4W和6W的制冷量。     

Parametric study for the cooling of high temperature superconductor (HTS) current leads

The analysis of cooling of a binary HTS 20 kA current lead (CL) operating between 4.5 and 300 K has been carried out. Assuming that the HTS module is conduction-cooled, two cooling options for the copper heat exchanger (HEX) part of the CL have been considered, i.e. (1) cooling with a single flow of gaseous helium and (2) cooling with two flows of gaseous helium. The ideal refrigerator power required to cool the whole HTS CL has been calculated for both cooling scenarios and different values of input parameters and the thermodynamic optimization has been performed for both cooling options. The obtained results indicate that the cooling Option 2 cannot provide significant savings of the refrigerator power, as compared to the Option 1. However, it has been observed that at the same helium inlet temperature the temperature at the warm end of the HTS part, and the resulting number of HTS tapes, can be reduced in the Option 2 with respect to the Option 1.     

新型CO2超音速两相膨胀制冷循环的理论研究

本文提出了以Laval喷管为核心部件的超音速两相膨胀机的概念,构建了以天然制冷剂CO2为工质的超音速两相膨胀制冷循环模型并对其进行理想循环热力学分析和模拟计算研究。结果表明：超音速两相膨胀机入口压力、入口温度和旋流分离段出口压力均对系统制冷性能有影响;在空调温区工况,CO2超音速两相膨胀制冷循环COP为6.69,是现有制冷性能相对最优的CO2跨临界制冷循环COP的1.63倍,且大幅降低系统压力;气液分离时液相速度损失对系统制冷性能有影响,系统COP由9.56减至6.01,相对卡诺效率由0.95减至0.60,但仍然保持在较高水平。通过初步的热力学分析和模拟计算研究表明,新型CO2超音速两相膨胀制冷循环具有较好的原理可行性和发展前景。