Ercang LUO*, Jianying HU, Yuan ZHOU, Wei DAI 

CAS Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry 

Beijing 100190, P.O.Box 2711, 

China *Corresponding author,Tel & Fax:+86-10-82543750, E-mail:Ecluo@mail.ipc.ac.cn 

ABSTRACT

Thermally-driven oscillating-flow cooling systems typically have advantages of high reliability, low-vibration and high adaptability of using various heat sources,etc. This paper mainly summarizes recent progress of several oscillating refrigeration and cryogenic cooling systems which can meet some typical applications including liquid helium (LHe) cooling, liquefaction of natural gas (LNG),air-conditioning cooling and heat pump,etc. For LHe cooling range, two configurations are emphatically introduced for achieving higher compactness which is quite crucial for satellite detector cooling of deep-space exploration. In such two configurations, a thermal compressor is adopted to drive a two-stage pulse tube cryocooler or a hybrid two-stage cryocooler. Some important experimental results will be reported, including key operating parameters, structure parameters and cooling performance. For LNG application, some theoretical fundamentals for designing efficient thermoacoustic conversion will be discussed in the paper. Then, some thermoacoustically-driven systems are identified and analyzed;in the meantime, some important experimental progress oft their prototypes will be also given. Finally, some efficient thermally-driven oscillating-flow systems for air-conditioning cooling and heat pump will be suggested and discussed, which may open important applications in utilizing industrial waste heat and solar energy, etc .

KEYWORDS: 

Thermally-driven, oscillating-flow, liquid-helium cooling, liquefaction of natural gas, air-conditioning cooling and heat pump