Optimum design of infrared detector's micro-cooler with entropy generation minimization

In this paper, an optimization of Joule-Thomson micro coolers, used in the infrared detector is performed based on minimization of irreversibility. These types of coolers have various applications in many industrial and non-industrial devices. One of the major applications of these coolers is the micro cooling system in infrared detectors. In this paper, the considerable cooling system is divided into some layer, include of the hot gas layer, cold gas layer, the buffer layer, top layer and upper layer and each layer divided into some cell. Then the energy balance (include of convective heat transfer and enthalpy flow) was applied to each cell and set of governed equations was solved with the suitable method. The comparison of the current study with experimental results shows the good accuracy of performing modeling. In the next section, irreversibility analysis was performed and the total entropy generation rate was evaluated. In the last section, optimization of the considered system is performed for minimizing of entropy generation and volume.