Pulse-tube Refrigerator

Advantage of GM coolers:
Very efficient (high rate of cooling ) Efficiency is higher than
PTR
Disadvantages of Stirling and Gifford-McMahon cryocoolers:

The moving displacer is a source of vibration which

(i) limits application

Cannot be used with Mossbauer, NMR, EMR and other spectroscopic
instruments with eliminating the vibration. Elimination of vibration
due to displacer movement can be eliminated but is a very difficult task.

(ii) limits lifetime

and

The displacer contributes to axial heat conduction as well as to a shuttle

heat loss.
 Single-Sage PTR
Compressor Reservoir
Regenerator Pulse Tube

Orifice

AC Cold Heat Hot Heat

Exchanger Exchanger

• Regenerator: A matrix made of porous material having high heat capacity and
low conductivity to exchange the heat with the gas (heart of the system).
• Hot heat exchangers: Release the heat created in the compression cycle to the
environment.
• Cold heat exchangers: Absorbs the heat of the environment because of cooling
down in the expansion cycle.
• After cooler (AC): Remove the heat of the compression in the compressor.
• Buffer: A reservoir having much more volume in compare with the rest of the
system.
• Orifice: An inlet for the flow resistance.
• Compressor: Creating a harmonic oscillation for the gas inside the system.
 How does a PRT works:
Working substance of PRT is gas
In the pulse tube cryocooler, the solid displacer is eliminated. The gas inside
the tube works as displacer

The proper gas motion (oscillation) in phase with the pressure is achieved by
the use of an orifice, along with a reservoir volume to store the gas during a
half cycle.

The oscillating flow through the orifice separates the heating and cooling
effects just as the displacer does for the Stirling and Gifford-McMahon
refrigerators.

The orifice of PTR operates ideally with adiabatic compression and

expansion in the pulse tube. Thus, for a given frequency there is a lower limit
on the diameter of the pulse tube in order to maintain processes to be
adiabatic.

The reservoir volume is large enough that negligible pressure oscillation

occurs in tube during the oscillating flow.
Advantage:
As the gas the middle part of tube works as displacer and the sample is cooled
Different geometries of PTR
The four steps in the cycle are as follows:

(1) The piston moves down to compress the gas (helium) in the pulse tube.
Gas is now hot.

(2) Compressed gas is at a higher pressure than the average in the reservoir.
So, it flows through the orifice into the reservoir and exchanges heat with
the ambient through the heat exchanger at the warm end of the pulse tube.
The flow stops when the pressure in the pulse tube is reduced to the average
pressure of the reservoir.

(3) The piston moves up and the gas in the pulse tube expands adiabatically.
Gas inside the tube cools down.

(4) This cold, low-pressure gas in the pulse tube is forced toward the cold
end by the gas flow from the reservoir into the pulse tube through the
orifice. As the cold gas flows through the heat exchanger at the cold end of
the pulse tube it picks up heat from the object being cooled. The flow stops
when the pressure in the pulse tube increases to the average pressure of the
reservoir. The cycle then repeats.
Gas in the middle portion of the pulse tube never leaves
the pulse tube and forms a temperature gradient that
insulates the two ends.
Roughly speaking, the gas in the pulse tube is divided
into three segments, with the middle segment acting
like a displacer consisting of gas rather than a solid
material and two ends acts as heat (warm and cold)
reservoirs.
For PTR:
Thermal insulation at the two ends of the pulse tube
must be very good.
Turbulence in the pulse tube must be minimized. Thus,
flow controlling at the two ends is crucial for the
successful operation of the pulse tube refrigerator
 GM cooler Vs PRT
Advantage: Small size, light weight and high cooling rate

Disadvantage:
The moving solid displacer is a source of vibration . For GM coolers this
vibration is transported to the cold head (sample). Decupling the cod head
and displacer is very difficult task.

The displacer contributes to axial heat conduction as well as to a shuttle

heat loss.

The gas in the pulse tube is divided into three segments, with the middle
segment of PRT tube acts as acting like a displacer. As the displacer consists of
gas rather than solid materials therefore will be no vibration.

As the gas at to two ends of the PTR acts as heat (warm and cold) reservoirs
and the working subtance is gas there will no conduction loss.

Disadvantage: Turbulence in the pulse tube and low cooling rate

Disadvantage:
Uses
Pulse tube cryocoolers are used in industrial applications such as
semiconductor fabrication and in military applications such as
for the cooling of infrared sensors.

Pulse tubes are also being developed for cooling of astronomical

detectors where liquid cryogens are typically used, such as the
Cosmology Telescope. PTRs are particularly useful in space-
based telescopes.

It has also been suggested that pulse tubes could be used to

liquefy oxygen on Mars.

With Mossbauer, NMR, EMR and other spectroscopic

instruments