Cryogenics

Volume 132, June 2023, 103664

Research paper

Development of a high capacity single stage GM cryocooler

at 30 K range
S.K. Gandla , M. Xu, S. Dunn

Sumitomo (SHI) Cryogenics of America Inc., 1833 Vultee St, Allentown, PA 18103, USA

Received 20 December 2022, Revised 1 March 2023, Accepted 6 March 2023, Available online 8 March 2023, Version of Record 4 May
2023.

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cryogenics.2023.103664
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Abstract

Recently, there has been a demand for high-performance cryocoolers at the 30 K range to support emerging
developments in high-temperature superconductors, green hydrogen power systems and circulating cooling system
applications. The Low Pressure Cooler (LPC), a mobile circulating cooling system used to cool down superconducting
magnets, mainly MRI’s, is currently a four cold head system running with four compressors. There is a strong demand
to develop a more compact system to replace the LPC to cool down legacy and helium-free MRI magnets, which
addresses ease of use, faster cool down, low power consumption, and simplifies handling and logistics. A more efficient
large capacity cold head can replace multiple smaller cold heads and achieve these demands. Sumitomo (SHI)
Cryogenics of America, Inc. has developed a high-capacity single-stage GM cryocooler, CH-160D2LT, for low
temperature, circulating cooling and HTS applications. It has a capacity of 200 W around 30 K at 60 Hz, which is
described in this paper. This cryocooler is part of the high-performance, low-noise, high capacity single-stage CH-
160D2 Cryocooler family. This paper will discuss developments such as the cryocooler’s performance, heat exchanger
efficiencies and regenerator designs.

Introduction

Superconducting magnet applications such as MRI’s, proton therapy systems and many accelerator facilities require
significant amount of cryogens, mainly liquid helium to cool down the superconducting materials from room
temperature to 4 K. Geo political situations, depleting liquid helium reserves across the world and high costs are some
of the main factors for pushing industry towards helium conservation and development of high temperature
superconductors for all the major applications where the low temperature superconductors are used. For more than
30 years, Sumitomo (SHI) cryogenics has been working with major superconducting magnet manufacturers to develop
helium conservation solutions such as our low pressure cooler (LPC) [1], [2], [3].

The LPC, shown in Fig. 1, is a mobile cryogenic circulating cooling system designed to cool down superconducting
magnets (e.g. MRI’s) or any remote thermal load from room temperature to below 30 K; reducing liquid helium usage
and expense, reducing on site cryogen handling and providing the option to ship a magnet warm and cool it on site.
The LPC system uses four compressors and four cold head systems with safety valves, vacuum pumps and control
electronics. Fig. 2 shows a MRI superconducting magnet cool down with a LPC.

Emerging developments like HTS applications, green hydrogen power systems and fusion applications have a demand
for high cooling capacities in the 20–30 K range. At the same time our existing customers are requesting a more
compact LPC having faster cool down, lower power consumption, simplified logistics and able to service legacy and
helium free systems. All these requirements have led to the development of high capacity CH-160D2 cryocoolers.
Earlier this year cryocooler model CH-160D2, optimized for 77 K with a minimum temperature below 35 K, was
released to the market with 525 W / 630 W at 77 K (50/60 Hz) [4]. Sumitomo has been working in parallel to develop a
cryocooler for the above mentioned applications optimized for the low temperature range of 20–30 K. For example, this
new 30 K cold head can replace the four cold heads in the LPC system described above and use two less compressors
and 43% less power. In the following sections of this paper we describe the development progress and updates.

Section snippets

Cryocooler and System Design

A high capacity single-stage GM cryocooler for the 30 K range, model CH-160D2LT (LT-Low Temperature) as shown in
Fig. 3, has been in development at SHI’s Cryogenic Group. The main design objectives for this cryocooler were to
maintain the same outline dimensions as the standard model, gain more performance in the 20–30 K range with a
target cooling capacity of ∼ 200–225 W at 30 K and provide a minimum temperature below 18 K;. The development
approach has been to optimize the displacer stroke…

Regenerator and Stroke Optimization

Using the standard displacer design and regenerator length, the first prototype was built by adding 600 g of bismuth
material at the cold end in place of 42% of the Cu/Phosphorous bronze material.

Tests were conducted with two F-70 compressors (at 60 Hz), equalization pressure of 1.52 MPa, cryocooler speed at
2.4 Hz and varying the stroke length minimally (2–6 mm). Test results are reported on Fig. 5, minimum temperature
and cooling capacity were improved in the 22–33 K ranges. A capacity of…

Conclusions and Future Work

Sumitomo (SHI) Cryogenics of America, Inc. has developed a low temperature version of a high-capacity 80 K single-
stage cryocooler for improved performance in the 30 K range. Typical cooling capacity of 100 W and 200 W was
achieved at 22–24 K and 30–33 K with the first prototypes. Cool down time to below 20 K was < 30 min and < 60 min to
minimum stable temperature at 60 Hz, with a minimum temperature of 18–20 K. Best performance was achieved by
investigating and optimizing stroke length, motion …

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.…

Acknowledgments
 The authors would like to thank Chris Tagliavia, Hank Fasnacht and Rich Fheringer for building and testing prototype
units.…

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References (4)

S.K. Gandla et al.

“Mobile refrigeration system for precool and warmup of superconducting magnets”
IOP Conf Ser: Mater Sci Eng (2017)

S. K. Gandla, R. C. Longsworth, R. B. Sloan, and N. L. Fasnacht, “Mobile Cryogenic System for Industrial and Laboratory...

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (1)

Numerical simulation and exergy analysis of a single-stage GM cryocooler

2023, Heliyon

Hide abstract

Improving the efficiency of the GM cryocoolers is of great importance for energy saving and CO2 emission reduction
due to the large amount of cryocoolers installed in the emerging fields of semiconductor manufacture and High
Temperature Superconductors (HTS) cooling. Previous studies mainly focused on the losses analysis and optimization
on the part of cold head, but the details of losses distribution in the parts of compressor and rotary valve were seldom
carried out. In this paper, a numerical model of a single stage GM cryocooler including compressor, rotary valve and
expander is built, and the feasibility of the model is verified by the experimental results. The losses characteristics of
the whole cryocooler are studied based on the exergy analysis method with the help of the numerical model. The
results indicate that the main losses are occurred in compressor and rotary valve, the value of exergy loss in
compressor decrease with the cooling temperature, and accounts for more than 60% at all cooling temperature. The
loss in rotary valve accounts for about 20% of the input electric power, and it does not significantly vary at different
cooling temperatures. Pressure drop dominates the loss in the compressor and rotary valve. The insufficient heat
exchange between the working gas and regenerative material is the main loss in regenerator, and the losses in
regenerator increase significantly with the decrease of cooling temperature when the compressor and rotary valve are
fixed. This study provides useful guides for the optimization of GM-type cryocoolers.

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