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Thermoacoustically driven pulse tube cooler for cascade recovery of waste heat

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  • Zhang, Lingxiao
  • Kang, Huifang
  • Muhammad, Umar
  • Jiang, Yifan
  • Zhang, Yuhang
  • Zhang, Tingwei

Abstract

A significant amount of energy is wasted as heat, highlighting the necessity of effective waste heat recovery. The thermoacoustically driven pulse tube cooler (TADPTC) offers a sustainable and eco-friendly solution with the advantages of high reliability. However, existing TADPTC has limitations in reaching lower minimum cooling temperatures, and no studies on cascade waste heat recovery for TADPTC system have been reported so far. This paper introduces a looped TADPTC system, incorporating four thermoacoustic engines that enable cascaded recovery of waste heat, along with a pulse tube cooler. The paper proposes various schemes for cascaded waste heat recovery and analyzes the cooling performance of the TADPTC both theoretically and experimentally. The effects of temperature and mean pressures on system performance are also investigated. The results indicate that TADPTC system achieves a record-low temperature of 46.6 K, marking the lowest record for a 100 Hz system. The TADPTC system can also achieve a cooling power of 3 W at 74.031 K. Under a four-stage cascading waste heat recovery configuration, the system achieves a recovery efficiency of 0.66 and a cooling power of 2.35W at 75.5K. This study provides valuable insights into the cascade recovery of waste heat in TADPTC systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Lingxiao & Kang, Huifang & Muhammad, Umar & Jiang, Yifan & Zhang, Yuhang & Zhang, Tingwei, 2025. "Thermoacoustically driven pulse tube cooler for cascade recovery of waste heat," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:328:y:2025:i:c:s036054422502198x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136556
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    References listed on IDEAS

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