Design Development and Testing of Opposed Piston Linear Compressor Driven Stirling Cycle Cryo Cooler for Space Application

Abstract

In the recent decade cooling to cryogenic temperature has made newlinegreat progress in fields like manufacturing process, food industry, newlinemedical, superconducting devices, military etc. An Infrared sensor is newlineused to measure and detect infrared radiation present in the surrounding. newlineIt works faster, is more sensitive and effective in cryogenic newlinetemperatures. The cryocooler give a better solution for the space newlinerequirement. newlineThis research work mainly concentrates on the design, newlinedevelopment and testing of the single-stage, split-type, valve-less newlineStirling cryocooler for space applications. The objective of the design is newlineto achieve a cooling capacity of a 2.0 W at 100 K for the cooler. newlineThe second-order cyclic analysis is used to analyze the thermal newlineperformance of the cryocooler. In cyclic analysis one cycle is divided newlineinto several equal intervals and pressure and volume variations for each newlineinterval is calculated. Using the pressure and volume variations ideal newlinerefrigerating effect and ideal power input are calculated. The ideal newlineperformance estimation is followed by calculating various losses leading newlineto a decrease in the refrigeration and an increase on the power side. Thus newlineviii newlineactual refrigerating effect and actual power required are calculated. newlineOnce the power required is known the power consumption becomes the newlineparameter for the design of the linear motor. The FORTRAN software is newlineused for cryocooler simulation and design. The cryocooler is developed newlinebased on thermal analysis results. A custom-made two-channel AC newlinepower source with a multiturn port for voltage, current and frequency is newlineused for phase shift to each other by -180° to +180°. A diffusion newlinevacuum pump Hind Hivac make (Model-VS 65D with liquid Nitrogen) newlineis used to create a high degree vacuum of the order 10-6 torr surrounding newlinethe cold tip, a critical requirement for achieving cryogenic temperature. newlineAluminized multilayer insulation, both inside and outside the newlinePerspex cover, resulted in a 16K improvement in cool-down temperature newlinecompared to gold-plated insulation.