Parametric Studies on a Numerical, Nonlinear Pulse Tube Flow

Abstract

The need for high reliability, low cost, low vibration cryocoolers, for both military and commercial applications, has spawned and continues to drive the development of pulse tube cryogenic refrigerators. The expander contains no moving parts, yielding the potential for marked improvements in these areas. Though pulse tube refrigeration has been thoroughly studied, more accurate analytic and numerical modeling tools are needed to facilitate the development of thermodynamically efficient pulse tube cryocoolers to meet the needs of the user community. At present, one of the primary areas of modeling uncertainty is in the calculation of the dissipative losses occurring within the pulse tube itself. Toward this end, a numerical model was developed to solve the one-dimensional, nonlinear governing equations for heat and mass flow in a pulse tube. The governing equations are scaled for high-frequency (>60 Hz) pulse lube operation. The resulting system of nonlinear, time-dependent equations was solved directly using the method of lines. The numerical model was verified analytically using a representative set of equations with a known solution. A sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the influence of different parameters on the solution.