Studies on Thermal Separation and the Effects of Geometrical and Operating Parameters on the Performance of Pressure Wave Refrigerators

Abstract

Thermal separation in a pressure wave refrigerator (PWR) occurs primarily through the propagation of shock waves and reverse-moving rarefied waves produced by injecting a high-pressure gas into a low-pressure residual gas in a receiving tube or channel. The major advantages of PWRs are simple design, low cost, high reliability, low rotational speed, and efficiency comparable to the conventional turbo-expanders. The objectives of this work are to understand the thermal separation in PWRs and to study the effects of various geometrical and operating parameters on the performance of PWRs. Two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using a finite volume method is adopted for this study. The results indicate that the temperature and pressure profiles of the fluid inside the receiving tube just before the discharge, in the region about half the tube length from the inlet nozzle, strongly govern the performance of a PWR. The operating frequency at which the isentropic efficiency attains the first peak value is determined in a generalized way. Within the chosen geometrical and operating parameters, the optimized tube length, operating frequency, and pressure ratio are 2 m, 50 Hz, and 2.5, respectively. The findings in this article will be useful in designing and operating PWRs optimally.