Influence of the Water-Cooled Heat Exchanger on the Performance of a Pulse Tube Refrigerator

• Main Authors: Wei Wang, Jianying Hu, Jingyuan Xu, Limin Zhang, Ercang Luo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-02-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: heat exchanger; pulse tube refrigerator; shell-tube types
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/3/229

The water-cooled heat exchanger is one of the key components in a pulse tube refrigerator. Its heat exchange effectiveness directly influences the cooling performance of the refrigerator. However, effective heat exchange does not always result in a good performance, because excessively reinforced heat exchange can lead to additional flow loss. In this paper, seven different water-cooled heat exchangers were designed to explore the best configuration for a large-capacity pulse tube refrigerator. Results indicated that the heat exchanger invented by Hu always offered a better performance than that of finned and traditional shell-tube types. For a refrigerator with a working frequency of 50 Hz, the best hydraulic diameter is less than 1 mm.