Experimental Study of an Aerospace Low Temperature Refrigerator Cooled by a Pulse-tube Cryocooler

Asingle-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocooler (PTC) has been designed, manufactured and tested at ShanghaiInstitute of Technical Physics (SITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for cooling an aerospace low temperature refrigerator (LTR), whose volume is 20 liters. The LTR system and the PTC system are introduced. Lots of simulations are carried out by CAD/FLUENT for verifying the LTR structure rationality and predicting the inside walls temperature uniformity. Some performance experiments of the LTR have been carried out and analyzedafter coupling with the PTC. The experimental results show that the PTC is capable of cooling the LTR to about average -100oC, so the PTC has a great potential for cooling aerospace LTRs. Some cooling curves are presented and discussed in detail for a thorough understanding of the LTR system.