Effect of Heat Exchanger and Capillary Geometry on the Performance of Joule–Thomson Refrigerators Operating With Different Mixtures

Abstract

Joule–Thomson (J–T) refrigerators or J–T cryocoolers are extensively used in many low-temperature applications. J–T refrigerators operating with nitrogen–hydrocarbon (N2-HC) refrigerant mixtures offer several advantages, such as low operating pressures (<20 bar), high exergy efficiency, no moving parts in the cold section, and low cost. The cooling power or cooling capacity of the J–T refrigerator depends on the hardware used as well as the refrigerant composition. The proposed work focuses on estimating the cooling capacity of a mixed refrigerant J–T (MRJ–T) refrigerator of the given hardware and specified refrigerant. An iterative steady-state full-cycle simulation procedure has been presented in this work to simulate the complete system and estimate the cooling capacity, taking into account the possibility of choking of the expansion capillary. Some of the results have been validated against experimental results of an MRJ–T refrigerator available in the open literature. Details of the simulation model and the results of our studies on the prediction of stable operating range, maximum cooling capacity, the effect of heat exchanger geometry, expansion capillary geometry, mixture composition, and choking of the refrigerant mixture on the performance of an MRJ–T refrigerator are presented in this article.