Elastocaloric effect and cooling performance of NiTi sheets in a continuous rotating bending elastocaloric cooler

Abstract

Elastocaloric cooling technology has the prospect of becoming a commercialized green alternative to current vapor-compression technology, and the systematic characterization of the elastocaloric effect and microstructure has become increasingly significant for the optimization of elastocaloric coolers and heat pumps. In this work, a comprehensive elastocaloric effect characterization for a dog-bone shaped NiTi sheet with a thickness of 0.5 mm was performed for the application in a compact continuous rotating bending elastocaloric cooler. The elastocaloric effect was found to be nearly identical under Brayton-like and sinusoidal force-controlled cyclic tensile loadings. The maximum adiabatic temperature change values of 31 and 23 K were recorded in Brayton-like cyclic loadings under maximum applied stress of 600 and 400 MPa, respectively, with an applied strain rate of 0.1 s−1. During fatigue tests, large applied stress (>600 MPa) and high applied strain rates (>0.1 s−1) tended to result in premature failure of the NiTi sheet samples. In the continuous rotating bending elastocaloric cooler, the sheets generated a temperature span of 6 K between the copper heat sink and heat source. The results of this work provide a set of thermophysical property data for the elastocaloric solid refrigerant and insights for the optimization of structural and operational parameters in elastocaloric coolers and heat pumps.