| Pulse Tube Cryocoolers (PTC) are a class of rugged and high-endurance refrigeration systems that operate without a moving part at their low temperature ends, and are capable of easily reaching 120°K. These devices can also be configured in multiple stages to reach temperatures below 10 °K. PTCs are particularly suitable for applications in space, missile guiding systems, cryosurgery, medicine preservation, superconducting electronics, magnetic resonance imaging, weather observation, and liquefaction of nitrogen. Although various designs of PTCs have been in use for a few decades, they represent a dynamic and developmental field. PTCs ruggedness comes at the price of relatively low efficiency, however, and thus far they have been primarily used in high-end applications. They have the potential of extensive use in consumer products, however, should sufficiently higher efficiencies be achieved. Intense research competition is underway worldwide, and newer designs are continuously introduced. Some of the fundamental processes that are responsible for their performance are at best not fully understood, however, and consequently systematic modeling of PTC systems is difficult. Among the challenges facing the PTC research community, besides improvement in terms of system efficiency, is the possible miniaturization (total fluid volume of few cubic centimeters (cc)) of these systems.; The operating characteristics of a PTC are significantly different from the conventional refrigeration cycles. A PTC implements the theory of oscillatory compression and expansion of the gas within a closed volume to achieve desired refrigeration. Regenerators and pulse tubes are often viewed as the two most complex and essential components in cryocoolers. An important deficiency with respect to the state of art models dealing with PTCs is the essentially total lack of understanding about the directional hydrodynamic and thermal transport parameters associated with periodic flow in microporous structures. This is particularly troubling with regards to the regenerator, where friction and thermal non-equilibrium between the fluid and the structure play crucial roles. Little attention has been paid to this issue primarily because of the difficulty of experimental measurements. Multi-dimensional modeling of a regenerator is very complex and requires knowledge about the anisotropic hydrodynamic parameters in various components, in particular the regenerator.; In view of the above, this investigation was aimed at: (a) experimental measurement and correlation of the steady and periodic flow directional Darcy permeability and Forchheimer's inertial hydrodynamic parameters for some widely-used regenerator fillers; (b) system-level parametric CFD-based analyses of entire PTC systems; and (c) a preliminary CFD-based assessment of the effect of direct and linear scale-down of current Inertance Tube Pulse Tube Cryocooler (ITPTCs) on their thermal performance.; Modular experimental apparatuses were designed and built for the measurement of pressure drops across five different and widely-used regenerator fillers, under steady-state and steady periodic flow conditions. Separate test sections were used so that the pressure drops in axial and lateral directions could be measured. The fillers that were investigated included 325 mesh stainless steel screens, 400 mesh stainless steel screens, sintered 400 mesh stainless steel screens, stainless steel metal foam, and stacked nickel micro-machined disks.; The parametric effects that were addressed in the experiments included the porosity in the range of 26.8% to 69.2%, and frequency in the range of 5 Hz to 60 Hz for the periodic flow tests. A CFDassisted method was developed, which allowed for obtaining the directional permeability and Forchheimer coefficients from the experimental data in a rigorous manner and without any arbitrary assumption.; Using the Fluent code, parametric CID analyses were performed in which enti... |
