An Experimental Investigation of Pulse Tube Refrigeration Heat Pumping Rates

Abstract

Pulse tube refrigerators have been under development at Syracuse University since 1962. These efforts have resulted in the construction of units that have achieved 124°K in one stage and 79°K in two stages from room temperature. Another single stage unit operating from 6soK achieved 30oK. Several unique features and reasonably good efficiency make pulse tube refrigeration particularly well suited for certain cryogenic cooling applications. An understanding of the heat pumping mechanism evolved along with the develop- ment of units. These descriptions can be found in previous papers [1- 3]. It would be very difficult to translate these verbal descriptions of the heat pumping mechanism into a theoretical equation that would give quantitative values of the heat pumping rate and work required for a pulse tube operating under any arbitrary set of conditions. This experimental investigation has as its objectives the confirmation of the descriptive models that have been presented, the direct measurement of heat pumping rates over a wide range of conditions, and the correlation of heat pumping rates in an empirical equation.