High efficiency linear compressor driven pulse tube cryocooler operating in liquid nitrogen temperature

The inertance tube is one of the key components of a pulse tube cryocooler. It has great influence not only on the efficiency of the pulse tube cryocooler, but also on the efficiency of the linear compressor. Meanwhile, it is very difficult to predict the impedance of an inertance tube because of the turbulent flow. In this paper, using a quasi-turbulent model, the inertance tube is optimized to match a linear compressor driven pulse tube cryocooler. Experimental results show that this model can predict the impedance quite well. With 127 W input electric power, the pulse tube cryocooler obtains 9.4 W cooling power at a temperature of 77 K. The relative Carnot efficiency of the whole system reaches 19.8%.