The design and fabrication of a reverse Brayton cycle cryocooler system for the high temperature superconductivity cable cooling

A high temperature superconductivity cable must be cooled below the nitrogen liquefaction temperature to apply the cable to power generation and transmission systems under superconducting state. To maintain the superconducting state, a reliable cryocooler system is also required. The design and fabrication of a cryocooler system have been performed with a reverse Brayton cycle using neon gas as a refrigerant. The system consists of a compressor, a recuperator, a cold-box, and control valves. The design of the system is made to have 1 kW cooling capacity. The heat loss through multilayer insulators is calculated. Conduction heat loss is about 7 W through valves and access ports and radiation heat loss is about 18 W on the surface of a cryocooler. The design factors are discussed in detail.