CHAPTER III

Closed cycle refrigerators and cryocoolers

1. Introduction

In Chapter II we described the principles of liquefaction of gases to produce low

temperatures. A second method of producing low temperatures is by using a closed cycle
cooling system. When the cooling power is in the range of kilowatts the cooling system
is referred to as a Cryorefrigerator. If, on the other hand, the cooling power produced is
below a few watts, the cooling system is generally called as a Cryocooler.

2. Helium Refrigerator
The helium liquefier circuit described in Chapter II can be used with some simple
modifications as a Closed Cycle refrigerator. Here the liquid helium after Joule
Thomson expansion is circulated through the part to be cooled. The vaporized helium
then passes through the cold side of the train of heat exchangers and returns back to the
compressor. In large size charged particle accelerator systems as well as in thermo-
nuclear fusion devices, big size superconducting magnets are used. They need
refrigeration power in kilowatts at 4.2 K or lower. Closed cycle helium refrigerators are
then the only option available for cooling these devices.

A schematic of a 1 kW helium refrigerator system planned to be used in the Institute

for Plasma Research at Ahmedabad for the Superconducting Tokomak project is
described by Sarkar et al.(1) in the Proceedings of the 18th International Cryogenic
Engineering Conference held in 2000. This will be a helium refrigerator producing 650
W of refrigeration along with a liquefaction capacity of 200 l/hr. Larger helium
refrigerators have been built and are operating successfully at various accelerator
laboratories all over the world. The discussions on large-scale helium refrigeration
systems are not discussed hereafter since this is beyond the scope of this book.

3. Closed cycle cryocoolers

Like a heat engine, a cryocooler also makes use a working substance, which
undergoes a thermodynamic cycle of operations. However, the cooling cycle is in the
reverse direction to that of a heat engine. In a closed cycle cryocooler the working
substance absorbs a certain amount of heat, Qc , from the sample at the cold temperature
Tc and rejects a greater amount of heat, QW, at a warm temperature TW. Since QW is
larger than Q c, external work W has to be done on the working substance in each cycle.

25
The amount of work needed to extract unit quantity of heat at the cold temperature Tc, or
in other words, the ratio W/Qc is a measure of the effectiveness of the refrigerator.

The cryocooler based on Carnot cycle is the ideal refrigerator in which all processes
are reversible. For this ideal Carnot refrigerator,

(W/Qc) Carnot = (TW −Tc )/Tc (III.3.1)

The performance of an actual cooling cycle is compared with that of the ideal Carnot
cycle. The efficiency of an actual cycle is defined as

η = (W/Qc) Carnot / (W/Qc) actual (III.3.2)

and is expressed as a percentage. The higher the value of η the more efficient is the
cycle.

A closed circuit cryocooler can be multi-staged. The principle of operation of a two-

stage cryocooler is shown in Figure III.1. In the second stage of the cooler, heat Qc is
absorbed at a temperature Tc and work W2 is done on the working substance to raise its
temperature from Tc to an intermediate temperature Ti.

Figure III1 Multi-staged cryocooler system

This now acts as the cold end of the first stage of the cryocooler. At this intermediate
temperature a quantity of heat Qi may be absorbed from another object. The total energy
in the working substance at Ti will be

Q = Qc + W2 + Qi (III.3.3)

26
 Further work Wi is done on the working substance and heat Qw is rejected at the warm
temperature Tw.

The working substance in most cryocoolers is helium gas. In a single stage system,
these cryocoolers can reach a temperature of around 50 K and in the two stage system,
the second stage cold end (also known as cold head) can reach a temperature around 10
K. These are the temperatures obtained, when there is no heat load on the cold head of
the cryocooler except for the minimal heat leak from the warm parts of the cryocooler. If
an additional heat load Q is supplied at the cold head (say by activating a heater), the cold
head temperature rises. The higher the applied heat load, the higher is the cold end
temperature.

In the following we will use the words cryo-refrigerators and cryocoolers

interchangeably.. There are many different thermodynamic cycles for a closed circuit
refrigerator. We will describe here, only two most popular cycles, namely the Stirling
and Gifford McMahon (GM) cycles. The cryorefrigerators built on these cycles have
found worldwide acceptance. In both these cycles, the refrigerator consists of the
following essential components.

(i) a compressor to compress the gas,

(ii) a displacer to move the gas from the cold to the warm end and vice-versa and

(iii) a regenerator, to enable the gas to exchange heat with the same.

But unlike the recuperative type heat exchanger, discussed in Chapter II , this is
regenerative type heat exchanger, which means the following. At any instant of time,
there is only one stream of gas, either warm or cold, passing through the regenerator. The
regenerator serves as a repository of heat from the warm gas when it passes through the
regenerator and as a supplier of heat when the cold gas passes through it. This will be
discussed further in a later part of this chapter.

The pulse tube cryocooler has been under development over the last two decades and
has reached a stage where it can now compete with the other refrigerators for some
applications. It differs from the above two cryorefrigerators, in that it has no displacer. A
gas piston in the tube shuttles back and forth and serves the purpose of the displacer. The
principle of operation of the pulse tube refrigerator will be briefly described in this
chapter.

In contrast to the above refrigerators, the Joule Thomson Cryocooler working down to
77 K usually operates in an open cycle. Although it needs a high pressure source of gas,
it does not use a compressor. Though its efficiency is poor compared to Stirling and GM
cycles, it finds limited applications.

27
4. Regenerator
The regenerator should have the following characteristics. It should allow a relatively
free passage for gas flow to ensure a low-pressure drop in the regenerator. The
regenerator material must have a high thermal capacity in the temperature range in which
it is used so that it can store the heat efficiently. Also, it should have a sufficiently large
thermal conductivity so that temperature uniformity in a direction perpendicular to fluid
flow is achieved quickly. But there should be high resistance to heat flow in the direction
in which the fluid is flowing. This can be achieved either by using spacers of low thermal
conductivity between layers of the regenerator material or by the suitable design of the
regenerator material itself.

For a single stage cryocooler operating down to ~ 30 K, the regenerator material will
be a mesh of fine stainless steel or phosphor bronze wire. These metallic wires are 30 to
100 µm in diameters with mesh openings of the same size. Around 80 K, the thermal
capacity of these materials is large and comparable to the classical value, 3R per gram
mole. But below this temperature the specific heat decreases rapidly.

For two stage cryorefrigerators, in which the second stage temperature is below 20K,
one should use a material with a lower Debye Temperature than copper. Lead is a
suitable material. It is used in the form of small spherical balls (with diameters of the
order of a few hundred µm).

Below 10 K, the thermal capacity of conventional regenerator materials is small

compared to the thermal capacity of the working substance, namely, helium gas. This
makes the regenerator efficiency quite low. This is the reason why the temperature range
of operation of Stirling or GM refrigerators is usually limited to above 10 K.

Newer magnetic materials, which have a large magnetic specific heat at very low
temperatures, have been developed for use as regenerator material in the second stage of
the refrigerator. These materials order magnetically in the temperature range 4 to 15 K.
Such an ordering is associated with a large peak in specific heat. Of these materials,
ErNi, besides having a large enough specific heat anomaly is chemically stable and also
insensitive to oxidation. Using spheres of ErNi as regenerative material, it is possible to
build two stage cryorefrigerators to provide refrigeration down to 4.2 K.

5. Stirling cycle cryorefrigerators

The Stirling cycle heat engine was first patented by Stirling brothers in 1816. The use
of reversed Stirling cycle for cryorefrigeration was the brain child of Kohlers in the
Phillips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, Holland. In the Stirling cryogenerator, a
piston and a displacer are mounted on the same shaft. The ideal cycle of operations
consist of two isothermal and two isochoric processes. The four phases of the reverse
Stirling cycle are shown in Figure III.2.

28
Phase 1: The displacer is at the top of the stroke and the piston is at the bottom of the
stroke. The piston moves up while the displacer is stationary. The gas is compressed.

Phase 2: Piston is at the top of the stroke and the displacer is moving down. The gas is
pushed from the warm space to its cold space first through a water cooler, in which the
heat of compression is removed, and then a regenerator. The warm gas deposits its heat
in the regenerator and enters the cold space at the top of the displacer.

Phase 3: After all the gas has been displaced to the cold space the piston and the
displacer move down. This expands the gas in the cold space and produces cooling. The
object to be cooled is attached to the cold head and exchanges heat with the cold gas.

Phase 4: The piston has reached the bottom of its stroke along with the displacer. Now,
the piston is stationary and the displacer moves up. The cold gas is pushed through the
regenerator to the warm space. The gas deposits its cold in the regenerator and enters the
compression space.

Fig. III.2: Four phases of the Stirling cycle Cryorefrigerator cycle

29
 Fig. III 3 Ideal reverse Stirling cycle on a P-V Diagram

The ideal reverse Stirling Cycle can be plotted on a PV diagram as shown in Figure
III.3. It can be seen that it consists of two isothermals and two constant volume
processes. But the practical Stirling cycle will be considerably different from the ideal
cycle. The motion of the piston P and that of the displacer D can be plotted as a function
of the phase angle of rotation of the cam.

Fig. III.4 Motion of the piston P and displacer D in one cycle in the Stirling
Cryogenerator

30
 The work done on the gas is represented by the area enclosed by the closed curve in
Fig. III.3.. The efficiency of the ideal Stirling Cycle is 100% i e. it has the same as the
efficiency of the Carnot cycle.

The discontinuous motion of the piston and displacer envisaged for the ideal cycle
cannot be achieved in practice. The piston and displacer are driven by the same shaft.
But their movements can differ in phase as shown in Figure III.4. The four phases in the
cycle are marked on the above figure.

The piston has a large pressure difference across it. But the temperature difference
across it is not large. So the piston must be sturdy and there should be a good fluid seal
to prevent leakage of gas across it. The displacer, on the other hand, has a low pressure
difference across it. But the temperature difference across the displacer is considerable.
The displacer is therefore made of a light-weight material. The fluid sealing requirement
is minimal. But the displacer should have a high longitudinal thermal resistance.

Theoretically, for an ideal gas, the efficiency of the Stirling cycle is the same as that
of the Carnot cycle. However, due to the non-ideality of the cycle, the actual efficiency of
the Stirling machine will be lower than that of the Carnot engine.

The efficiency of a working Stirling cycle cryorefrigerator reaches a peak value of 40 to

50% around 125 K. The efficiency drops on either side of this temperature. The
operating frequency of a Stirling machine is high - of the order of a few hundred to a few
kiloHertz.

The integral Stirling cryogenerator, in which the piston and displacer operate in a
single housing, has been used to liquefy gases. In a nitrogen liquefier a Pressure Swing
Adsorption system produces nitrogen gas of 95% purity. When this gas is let in at a
pressure slightly above atmospheric pressure into the head of the cryogenerator, it gets
cooled by contact with the cold head heat exchanger and gets liquefied. This liquid can
be collected through a pipe through which it flows under gravity.

Such liquefiers are now available in modular form. One can have a multiple cylinder
cryogenerator to increase the capacity for liquefaction. Liquid nitrogen plants based on
the Stirling cycle have been found to be rugged and reliable.

31
 Fig. III.5: A photograph of a Stirling Cycle Nitrogen liquefier

5. 1. Split Stirling cycle cryocooler

For certain applications like cooling IR detectors in space, one needs a refrigerating
power of a few watts at about 77 K. But the system must be vibration free. Freedom
from vibrations can be ensured by separating the piston from the displacer and connecting
the compression space and the displacer space by a flexible coupling. Such an
arrangement is called a split Stirling cycle cryocooler and is shown schematically in
Figure III.6.

5. 2 Free displacer – free piston Stirling cryogenerator

In the case of the integral Stirling cryogenerator, the piston and the displacer are
mounted on a common shaft. There are kinematic links to convert the rotary motion of
the flywheel into the linear motions of the piston and the displacer. Such a kinematic
drive has bearings, seals and oil lubricant. This results in contamination of the working
space with oil, and also friction and wear of the moving parts. If the moving components
are rendered free of cumbersome kinematic linkages, the above problems can be
mitigated. This is achieved in the free piston- free displacer (FPFD) type cryocoolers.

32
 Figure III.6: A split Stirling cycle cryocooler

In the FPFD machines, the moving piston and displacer are driven linearly either
pneumatically or electromagnetically. The moving part is suspended on a spring which
determines its mean position. Because the driving force is axial, no side loading occurs.
This eliminates the need for oil lubrication. Close tolerance dry seals can be used. This
increases the life and reliability of FPFD cryocoolers.

In the electromagnetically driven compressors, the piston is driven by a linear motor.

The piston is attached to a coil placed in a transverse magnetic field. When an AC
current is passed through the coil, the coil moves back and forth linearly and drives the
piston. The piston is suspended on a spring.. The free displacer moves through the
differential pressure of the gas. The phase difference in the motion of the displacer
relative to the compressor piston is adjusted by springs and mass loading.

The main areas of application of such Stirling coolers are in cooling (i) IR detectors,
and (ii) filters of high temperature superconductors for mobile telephony. Cryocoolers
which produce ~ 4 to 6 W at 80 K are now commercially available and have a mean life
time between failures larger than 20,000 hours.

33
6. Gifford-McMohan refrigerator

A schematic of the GM refrigerator is shown in Figure III.7. Helium gas is

compressed in the compressor C to a pressure of about 120 psi. The compressor is the
usual domestic refrigeration compressor modified to remove the larger heat of
compression of helium.

Oil is injected in the compressor suction line to remove the heat of compression.
After removing the heat of compression, oil vapour in the helium gas is removed through
three successive separation devices, namely centrifugation, coalescence with a return line
at low pressure for oil droplets and a micropore filter F. Traces of oil vapour in the
helium will freeze in the colder parts of the refrigerator and block the flow of gas. The
micropore filter plays a very important role in removing the final traces of oil vapour in
the gas. The compressed gas flows into a buffer vessel.

The cycle consists of the following four phases. The variation of pressure, position of
the displacer and valve openings V1 and V2 in the four phases are shown in the figure
III.8.

Phase I: The displacer D in the cylinder CY is at the bottom of its stroke. Valve V2 is
closed and valve V1 is opened. The pressure rises from P2 to P0. The temperature of the
gas in the volume VW above the displacer rises above 300 K due to adiabatic
compression.

Phase II: The valve V1 remains open, the displacer moves up. The gas in the space VW
moves through the regenerator R to the cold space VC. Since the temperature of VC is
lower than the temperature of VW additional gas is drawn from the buffer vessel through
the regenerator. This process is isobaric at constant pressure P0.

Phase III: Valve V1 closes quickly while valve V2 opens at the same time. The
displacer remains in the top position. The pressure drops.

Phase IV: The displacer moves down to its original position. The cold gas is pushed
through the regenerator to the compressor through the cold station where heat is extracted
from the sample. This process is not exactly isobaric due to heat exchange in the
regenerator.

The compressed helium gas is connected to the cold finger through flexible pressure
lines. The displacer in the cold finger is either mechanically or pneumatically driven. The
synchronisation of the motion of the displacer with the opening and closing of the HP and
LP valves is achieved by using a rotating distributor.

34
 Fig. III.7 Schematic diagram of a GM Refrigerator

Fig. III.8 Variation of displacer position, valve openings and pressure in a GM cycle

The advantages of the GM refrigerator are the following:

• The compression and expansion volumes are separate. This results in reduced
vibrations of cold parts.
• The operating frequency is of the order of a few hertz. Because of this low
frequency operation wear and tear of the components is less.
• The displacer operates with very little pressure difference on either side of it.
There can be more tolerance in the clearance of the displacer.
• Multi-staging the GM refrigerator is simple.

35
Figure III.9 Photograph of a two stage commercial GM refrigerator, manufactured by
CTI Cryogenics, USA. It produces 3 W at 20 K combined with 10 W at 85 K. The
refrigerator has a length of 470 mm long and weight of about 10 kg. Helium compressor
is not shown in the above figure.

The areas of application of GM refrigerators are in cryopumping, cooling of radiation

shields in MRI magnet cryostats, and cooling samples for carrying out experiments in the
laboratory.

Two stage GM refrigerators producing about 20 W refrigeration capacity around 100

K and 1 W refrigeration capacity around 10 K are commercially available and are being
used for low temperature measurements in many laboratories in the country.

36
 More recently GM refrigerators have been used to cool high temperature
superconducting magnets. Conventional superconducting magnets need to be dipped in a
liquid helium bath for cooling. In the dry HTSC magnet systems the need for such a bath
is eliminated. Figure III.10 shows a picture of such a cryogen free superconducting
magnet.

Fig. III.10 Conduction-cooled magnet offered by Kobe Steel, Ltd., and

Japan Magnet Technology, Inc.

7. Pulse tube refrigerator

High reliability in small cryocoolers has been a difficulty which has been studied for
many years. One approach to increase the reliability is to eliminate some of the moving
parts in a mechanical refrigerator. The Stirling type refrigerator has two moving
components, namely, the piston and the displacer, where as the GM type refrigerator has
the diaplacer as the moving component.

37
 In 1963, Gifford and Longsworth [G1] discovered a new refrigeration technique,
which eliminated the moving components of the Stirling system by replacing it with the
gas piston. This is known as Pulse Tube Refrigeration (PTR). The advancement in the
area of PTR has progressed significantly over the last two decades. As on date,
commercial systems are available, which produce refrigeration powers similar to those of
GM type systems for several applications.

Figure III11. Working principle of a Pulse Tube Refrigerator

(A) Empty tube closed at one end and applied with pressure pulses, (B) The same
arrangement with heat exchangers at their ends, (c) The above arrangement with
regenerator before the entry of pressure pulses.

The working of a PTR can be understood with the help of Figure III 11. Consider a
thin walled cylinder closed at one end and high and low pressure is alternately applied at
the other end. The gas boundary at low pressure will move from the left end to the right
end of the tube as the pressure inside the tube increases from Pl to Ph. Similarly, as the
pressure decreases from Ph to Pl, the gas boundary returns back to the original position.
The work of compression is now transferred to the gas and hence the gas will get heated
when it moves to the right. Since the gas is in contact with the wall of the tube, the

38
closed end of the tube gets heated when the gas is compressed. Similarly, when the
pressure decreases from Ph to Pl the gas is cooled and hence the wall of the tube in
contact with the tube at the open end is also cooled. Repeated compression and
expansion of the gas or pressure pulsing causes heating and cooling of the gas to occur
alternately and this in turn causes an asymmetrical effect, namely, the heating to occur at
the closed end and the cooling to occur at the open end.

When the heat exchangers are added at either end as shown in figure (B), the effect is
now substantiated, since warm end heat exchanger (WHE) ensures that the gas is
maintained at some steady temperature after compression. Hence, on expansion, the cold
end heat exchanger (CHE) shows some cooling effect.

To convert the above observed effect into useful refrigeration, a highly efficient
regenerator is introduced as shown in figure (C). The WHE is now circulated with
cooling water. By this, the heat of compression at the end of high pressure Ph will be
removed from WHE, causing the gas to come back ambient temperature. Now the gas
will get cooled on expansion and the gas will gradually cool both CHE and regenerator.
The next batch of incoming gas takes in the cold stored in the regenerator and hence the
temperature of the gas entering the Pulse Tube is slightly less than that of the previous
cycle. Thus the CHE is gradually cooled to lower and lower temperature. The ultimate
low temperature attained at the cold end depends on the heat load entering it. The
schematic of a typical PTR is shown in figure III.12.

To attain the lowest possible temperature, one should use helium gas as the working
fluid. The pressure variation ∆P is produced at the inlet of the pulse tube refrigerator
varies sinusoidally as

∆P = ∆P0 sin ωt (III.7.1)

This pressure oscillation can be produced by using a compressor and a rotary

distribution valve (Rotary Valve) as in the case of a GM Cryocooler. When this
frequency of oscillation ω is low (within 10 Hz), this type of PTR is known as GM type
PTR. On the other hand, one can also apply pressure oscillations directly to the Pulse
Tube system by valveless compressors. This occurs at higher circular frequency (~ within
50 Hz) and this type of PTR is known as Stirling type PTR.

The pressure wave produces a sinusoidal oscillation in the velocity v of the gas in the
pulse tube. Let the velocity be given by

v = v0 sin (ωt −φ) (III.7.2)

39
 Fig. III.11: Schematic of a typical Pulse Tube Refrigerator

The enthalpy flow at any point in the pulse tube averaged over one period of the pressure
cycle and is given by,
τ
<H> = (Cp A / RT) (1/T) ∫ v ∆P dt (III.7.3)
0

Here the mass flow rate is ρAv, ρ is the density of the gas and A is the area of cross-
section of the pulse tube. The ideal gas equation of state can be used in the above
equation. Herein τ refers to the period of oscillation of the pressure wave and Cp is the
specific heat of the gas in the tube. The average enthalpy flow is proportional to Cos(φ)
and is a maximum when the pressure and velocity field at any point are in phase. Thus,
theory based on enthalpy balance indicates that if heat needs to be extracted from the cold
end of the Pulse Tube, then the velocity and pressure oscillations must be in phase at this
end.

The basic Pulse Tube system of Gifford and Longsworth, wherein the valves V1 and
V2 of figure III 11 are closed, did not meet the above criterion and hence the refrigeration
achieved was miniscule. In fact, the phase difference is nearly π/2. The cooling is
produced in this case is essentially due to gas to wall conduction heat transfer. Now one
can invoke an analogy between the velocity and the pressure in the pulse tube to the
electric current and voltage in an electrical circuit. In the electrical circuit, the phase
difference between the voltage and current can be controlled by a proper choice of
resistance, capacitance and inductance.

40
 In the pulse tube refrigerator, the role of resistance is played by the orifice needle
valve V1 and the role of the capacitance by the buffer vessel. By adjusting the opening of
the orifice and the volume of the buffer vessel one can adjust the phase difference φ to
approach zero in GM type pulse tube coolers operating at low frequency. Mikulin in 1984
proposed the concept of the Orifice type PTR. Alternately, by introducing a capillary
between V2 and the buffer volume, one can also control the phase φ. This capillary,
called the inertance tube, is equivalent to an inductance in an electrical circuit. This
method of control is used in Stirling type pulse tube refrigerators operating at high
frequency.

Zhu et al in 1990 proposed the double inlet concept. Here one introduces the flow
impedance V2 to allow a small flow of gas at the warm end of the pulse tube, thereby
reducing the gas flow through the regenerator. This improved the performance of the
orifice type Pulse Tube refrigerators. One was able to reach lower temperatures.

However, the double inlet pulse tube also causes a parasitic dc flow through the
regenerator and the pulse tube and this reduces its ultimate performance as a cryocooler.
This dc flow can be cancelled by connecting the orifice side to the low-pressure side of
the compressor through a needle valve. This flow tends to cancel the parasitic dc flow
through the pulse tube. This improves the performance of the double inlet pulse tube
refrigerator. However, in Stirling type Pulse Tubes, it is more difficult to cancel the dc
flow through the pulse tube. In such cases, double inlet arrangement is not used and it is
sufficient to control the phase difference by the orifice mode itself.

The pulse tube refrigerator has the advantage that there is no moving displacer in the
tube and this considerably reduces the vibrations of the cold tip. However the efficiency
of the PT refrigerator is low compared to that of a Stirling or GM cryocooler. Efforts are
underway to improve the efficiency of PTR.

For space borne applications, Stirling mode PT cryocoolers have been developed to
produce a refrigerating power of a few watts in the temperature range between 50 to 80 K.
For ground applications, GM type Pulse tube refrigerators have been developed providing
~100 W of refrigeration power at 80 K and nearly 10W at 15 K. With suitable magnetic
regenerator materials Pulse Tube Refrigerators can now produce ~ 0.5 W of refrigeration
power at 4.2 K. Using Helium3 as the working fluid, a temperature of 1.78 K has been
obtained with PTRs.

8. Joule-Thomson cryocoolers
It was pointed out in Chapter II, that in large liquefiers / refrigerators, the last stage of
cooling is achieved by isenthalpic expansion through an orifice. One can also build open
cycle cryocoolers, notably for IR detector cooling, using the Joule Thomson effect. Here
the cooler is integrated with a detector dewar.

41
 High pressure nitrogen gas (about 150 bars) enters the orifice and expands. The cold
gas passes through a heat exchanger surrounding the inlet tube connected to the orifice.
This provides regenerative cooling of the incoming gas. After a short time, the gas
liquefies in the dewar. The JT orifice and heat exchanger are mounted in a double walled
evacuated dewar as shown in Figure III.12.

The efficiency of such an open cycle JT cooler is poor compared to other closed cycle
cryocoolers. However the advantages are the reliability of their operation, the stability of
the temperature and the capacity for miniaturisation. Alfeev proposed in 1973 that using
mixtures of gases one could reduce the pressure to which the mixture has to be
compressed to achieve the same refrigeration capacity. For example, a mixture of
nitrogen with hydrocarbons needs to be compressed only to 90 bar. This proposal has
been verified. The JT cooler efficiency has been considerably improved. A new
generation of more efficient JT coolers using gas mixtures is in the offing.

Figure III.13 An integral Joule-Thomson Cryocooler for IR detectors

(Courtesy: Catalogue of M/s Thales Cryogenics, France)

For a JT cooler operating at liquid helium temperatures the incoming gas must be
precooled below 50 K by a two stage GM refrigerator. The gas flowing through the JT
valve can be drawn from the GM compressor at its discharge stage. The expanded gas
will have to be compressed to the suction pressure of the GM compressor before entry
into it.

9. Relative efficiencies of different cryocoolers

Figure III.13 compares the efficiencies of different types of cryocoolers as a function of
temperature. It can be seen that the isothermal expansion of the Carnot’s cycle accounts
for its 100% efficiency. The adiabatic expansion with work recovery has nearly 80%
efficiency in most of the temperature regions except below about 20K. On the other
hand, adiabatic expansion without work recovery has relatively lower efficiency and
gradually increases with lowering of temperature upto about 20K.

42
 The thermodynamic efficiency of orifice Pulse Tubes fall in the 40 to 70% range,
especially above 75K. The JT expansion systems have lower efficiencies compared to
other systems. The efficiency of the JT system for a given fluid increases with
temperatures approaching its liquefaction. One can use different fluids such as N2, H2
and Helium for different temperature ranges.

Fig. III.14. Relative efficiencies of different cryocoolers as a function of temperature

10. Conclusion
Small closed cycle refrigerators are used quite commonly in many laboratories. The
advantage with these refrigerators is that a desired low temperature can be reached by the
push of a button. The need for relatively large liquefiers with problems of maintaining
and servicing them is eliminated. The development of these closed cycle refrigerators
must be considered revolutionary as they have made low temperature measurements
accessible economically to small laboratories, especially in the underdeveloped countries.

43
REFERENCES

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2. Randall F Barron, “Cryogenic Systems”, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, New
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3. Thomas M. Flynn, “Cryogenic Engineering”, Mercel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1997.

4. G. Walker and E. R. Berigham, “Low capacity cryogenic Refrigeration”, Clarendon

Press, Oxford, 1994.

5. G. Walker, “Cryocoolers”, Vol. I & II, Plenum Press, New York (1983).

6. G. Walker, “Stirling cycle Machines”, Oxford University Press, New York (1973).

7. G. Walker, “Miniature refrigerators for cryogenic sensors and cold electronics”,

Monographs on Cryogenics, Oxford University Press, New York (1989).

8. W. E. Gifford, and R. C Langsworth, (1964). Pulse tube refrigeration progress,

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