100 W 70 K

Investigations to the long-term operational behaviour of GM-pulse tube cryocoolers
A. Siegel and H. U. Hfner Citation: AIP Conf. Proc. 613, 903 (2002); doi: 10.1063/1.1472110 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1472110 View Table of Contents: http://proceedings.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=APCPCS&Volume=613&Issue=1 Published by the American Institute of Physics.
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INVESTIGATIONS TO THE LONG-TERM OPERATIONAL BEHAVIOUR OF GM-PULSE TUBE CRYOCOOLERS
A. Siegel, H.U. Hafner Leybold Vakuum GmbH Koln, 50968, Germany
ABSTRACT In the context of a project sponsored by the German government (BMBF, project no. 13N7396/8) numerous experimental investigations were executed to test the long-term operational behaviour of Gifford McMahon type pulse tube cryocoolers. In the first part of the paper some experimental results will be presented. The temperature stability of the first stage differs clearly from the stability of the second stage. It will be tried to describe the causes of this behaviour. All pulse tube cryocoolers in use operate in the double inlet mode. This operation mode has a large influence on the long-term operational behaviour, because a false distribution of the gas flow is possible, the so-called DC flow. Apart from the DC flow, there are other variables that have a negative influence on stable pulse tube behaviour. It will be shown that a stable pulse tube operation can be guaranteed, if sufficient attention is given to all negative variables. INTRODUCTION Since the late 1980's when investigations on pulse tube coolers were strongly intensified this cryocooler principle appears to be a promising alternative to the Gifford McMahon cryocooler. Due to the absence of any moving part in the coldhead, pulse tube coolers are interesting for all applications where high reliability and lifetime as well as low vibrations are necessary. At Leybold Vacuum pulse tube coolers are a topic of investigations since approximately 5 years ago. The centre of attention lies in special applications of the refrigeration technology, like the cooling of superconducting electronics and energy applications. An emphasis of the investigations executed by Leybold is -apart from achieving the required minimum cooling capacity- to secure a stable and reliable pulse tube operation. Therefore extensive investigations have been performed to test the long-term operational behaviour of pulse tube coolers. The following sections will describe these investigations.
CP613, Advances in Cryogenic Engineering: Proceedings of the Cryogenic Engineering Conference, Vol. 47, edited by Susan Breon et al. 2002 American Institute of Physics 0-7354-0059-8/027$ 19.00
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EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
The reliability of a system increases the less moving components are used. For this reason only one moving element is used in the Leybold pulse tube coolers: the rotating valve, which supplies the pulse tube coldhead with high and low pressure helium gas. It is the same type of valve that is used in the commercial GM coldheads and therefore fairly well proven with respect to operational stability and lifetime. Figure 1 shows a schematic drawing of a double-inlet pulse tube refrigerator (DIPTR). Double inlet valve and orifice valve are simple passive devices. After being adjusted to their optimum values at a certain operating point of the pulse tube cooler, the setting will not be modified. The further components of the pulse tube cooler are a regenerator, a cold stage heat exchanger, a pulse tube, a gascooler and a buffer. They are described for example in [ 2], [ 3 ]. Figure 2 shows a photo of a Leybold two-stage pulse tube cryocooler. The two pulse tubes are completely separated from each other and for reasons of independent optimization their gas supply is controlled by two separate valve assemblies.
to / from compressor
gascooler
rotating valve
double-inlet valve
FIGURE 1. Schematic drawing of a GM-type double-inlet pulse tube cryocooler (single-stage unit)
FIGURE 2. Two stage Leybold pulse tube cryocooler
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The only thermal coupling of both stages consists of a thermal link between 1st stage cold flange and the intermediate section of the second stage regenerator. The gas supply of both stages is realised with a common compressor, and the share of gas between first and second stage can be adjusted with a flow control valve (for experiment only). Figure 2 also indicates the location of diverse temperature sensors which were used to read the temperatures later shown in figures 3, 4 and 5.
FIRST MEASUREMENT RESULTS

During the last year extensive investigations on the efficiency of pulse tube coolers have been carried out. It was shown that with the double inlet pulse tube coolers comparatively high cooling capacities can be achieved repeatedly. For example with the CP 6000 compressor (6kW power input) 100 W of refrigeration capacity were achieved at 70 K in a single-stage pulse tube cooler. For possible applications the efficiency of the cryocooler is fully sufficient. So the main question is: Is it possible to get a reliable and temperature-stable cooling with a pulse tube cryocooler? For this reason a lot of long-term measurements with pulse tube coolers have been performed. The first measurements referring to the temperature stability of the cooler led to the surprising realisation, that this pulse tube cooler operates quite stable only over a period of ca. 2 days. A typical behaviour is shown in figure 3. In this figure one can see the temperature gradients of the first and second stage of a two-stage pulse tube cooler for a time period of 115 hours. The temperature of the first stage achieved a relatively stable level after approximately 10 hours at 73 K, while the second stage operates stable at 20 K. After 48 hours the temperature at the first stage suddenly rises up to 80 K. Due to the thermal coupling of the second stage regenerator to the first stage cold plate the temperature at the second stage
T-l.St. XT-2.St
FIGURE 3. Measured temperatures at the first and second stage of a two stage Leybold pulse tube
cryocooler for the temperature ranges 80 and 20 K (first/second stage refrigeration capacity 60 W/4 W)
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also rises up a little (< IK). After approximately 60 hours a strong increase of the first stage temperature from 80 to 150 K is noticed. As consequence of this temperature rise the temperature of the second stage rises up too. In case of higher time resolution the sequence of events can be clearly detected. This behaviour was reproduced several times and it is noticed that in all cases the instability of the first stage was the reason for the "temperature crash". Trying to understand this behavior one first has to realize that the geometrical conditions for both stages are strongly different. The pulse tube of the second stage is long and narrow, while the pulse tube of the first stage is short with a large diameter. The same is valid for the regenerators. Another difference is the cooling capacity in relation to pulse tube volume. A substantially higher power density is demanded from the first stage. Therefore the operational behaviour of the first stage has to be examined more exactly. In figure 4 the wall temperatures of the midpoint of the regenerator and at the midpoint of the pulse tube are shown as well as the cold plate temperature. As already shown in figure 3 the temperature of the first stage seems to be stable after switching on the heat load (approx. 3 h). The same applies to the regenerator. However the temperature in the middle of the pulse tube gives an early indication on the sudden drop of capacity. Immediately after switching on the heat load, the pulse tube wall temperature begins to decrease. According to the thermal capacity relation between regenerator and pulse tube the regenerator temperature rises in the same way as the pulse tube wall temperature falls. The reason for this process is the DC flow, which is caused by an uneven flow through the double Inlet (DI) valve. The basics to the DC flow are described in detail by Gedeon in [1]. The temperature stability of the first stage clearly can be improved by modifications at the DI valve. The success of these measures can be seen from figure 5. Up to approx. 144 h (6 days) the cryocooler operates absolutely stable. After this the pulse tube temperature
300
| T-l.St. T-l.St.PT-mid T-l.St.-Reg-mid

FIGURE 4. Measured temperatures at the first stage of a two stage Leybold pulse tube cryocooler (first
stage refrigeration capacity 60 W)
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250 f^j\j
200 -
E 150
!
!
& 100 50 -
K?> Y
^^ A^J
0 - , 0 24 48
72
96
120 144 168
192 216 240 264 288
time [h]
T-l.St. X T-l.St.-PT-mid O T-l. St. -Reg-mid
FIGURE 5. Measured temperatures at the first stage of a two stage Leybold pulse tube cryocooler (first
stage refrigeration capacity 60 W), optimized version
drops again, but then only a little "temperature crash" comes up at 264 h (11 days). This temperature rise is by far not that strong as in figure 4. After the brief rise the cold plate temperature almost achieves the formerly stable values again. That means, that the cooler remains at a high cooling capacity level for the whole time of operation, but is not absolutely stable in temperature. Again the reason for the temperature rise in figure 5 is the DC flow. But this DC flow must be very small, otherwise the fully stable operation at the beginning would not have been realized.
REASONS FOR INSTABILITY

During the more exact analysis of the results it was found that the DC flow is not the only reason for an unstable pulse tube operation. For example, the reduction of the heat load at the first stage under a certain level, also leads to a stable working pulse tube cryocooler. Therefore the following list of reasons is found as explanation for an unstable behavior of the pulse tube cooler:
Surrounding conditions: The behaviour of the pulse tube depends on the surrounding conditions like air and coolant temperature. Similarly the pressure amplitude supplied by the compressor as well as the compressor pressure level itself have an influence on the pulse tube operation.
Opening times of the rotating valve: With the opening times of the rotating valve the high and low pressure phases and also the zero gas flow phases are determined. Particularly the latter are of crucial importance for the flow conditions in a pulse tube refrigerator.
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Type and position of the double inlet valve: As described above the DI valve is a key component for the DC flow in a pulse tube cooler. Valves with strongly different flow characteristics for both flow directions lead to high DC flows. Moreover the flow characteristics of every single valve depends on its setting. Pulse tube volume: The pulse tube volume must fit the desired refrigerator performance. If this volume is too small (in relation to the refrigerator performance), the gas displacer does not have sufficient space to do the appropriate volume work. Convection in the pulse tube: Because of convection processes within the gasdisplacer the thermal separation of the warm and cold pulse tube section can be removed. In this case heat will be transferred from the warm to the cold end of the pulse tube and the refrigerator becomes unstable.
Geometrical conditions: With unfavourable geometrical conditions (e.g. very short and wide pulse tube) convection processes in the gas displacer are strengthened. Additionally deviations from the ideal cylindrical form of the gas displacers are determined by the relation between pulse tube length and diameter. Strong deviations from ideal cylindrical shape lead to an increased susceptibility to interference causing an unstable pulse tube behaviour.
In summary: the probability for instability of a DI pulse tube refrigerator is high and each design has to be tested to see if its operation is stable. If an instability is realized, all the above specified factors could be a contributing cause.
MEASUREMENT RESULTS AFTER OPTIMISATION

After these findings on pulse tube coolers with high refrigerating capacity, two single stage systems have been equipped with a multiplicity of temperature sensors. These sensors should help to identify local phenomena of the temperature drift. In figure 6 one can see the graph of the cold plate temperature of such a refrigerator for two different cooling capacities. For a cooling capacity of 60 W the temperature begins to rise after 48 hours and passes through a temperature maximum approximately after 96 operation hours, which is around 17 K above the minimum temperature at 60 W. After this peak the temperature begins to decline almost to its previous value. However it rises again in the later period. It is noticeable that the temperature fluctuation after the peak is clearly larger than before. This is probably caused by the convection process in the gas displacer, arising particularly in the boundary section of the displacer. By reducing the cooling capacity to 40 W, the refrigerator directly turns from unstable to very stable operation. Since now with the lower cooling capacity the gasdisplacer is "longer" this can be interpreted as a better thermal separation of the warm and the cold end of the pulse tube.
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48
96
144
192
240
288
336
384
432
480
time [h]
FIGURE 6. Measured cold stage temperatures of a single stage Leybold pulse tube cryocooler (refrigeration capacity 60W/40W)
Finally in figure 7 the temperature graph of an optimized single stage pulse tube refrigerator is shown, for a heat load (cooling capacity) of 40W. In comparison to the former graphs please note the more sensitive scaling of the temperature axis. The remaining small variations in temperature are caused by always existing instabilities of the surrounding conditions. For this given cooling capacity this pulse tube refrigerator is now highly temperature stable.
50
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
FIGURE 7.
Measured cold stage temperatures of a single stage Leybold pulse tube cryocooler (refrigeration capacity 40W)
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The last example should show that it is possible -despite many possible interference sources-, to operate a DIPTR with high cooling capacity in a stable way.
CONCLUSIONS
Experiments on the operational behaviour of DIPTR showed that unstable temperature conditions are possible for this type of pulse tube cooler, especially if higher cooling capacities are applied. The possible reasons for the unstable pulse tube behaviour are various, and many detail aspects such as valve unsymmetries and settings, volumes and lengthes of tubes etc. are not only factors for the general capacity definition, but also for stability. For this reason each new pulse tube cooler design has to be examined carefully regarding its temperature-stability. The period of such stability investigation should last at least 2 weeks, since the measurements executed here showed up that the unstable behaviour sometimes appears not before ten days after starting the pulse tube refrigerator. On the other hand the measurements finally demonstrated, that a temperature stable DEPTR operation with high cooling capacity is possible.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Support by the German government BMBF (project no. 13N7396/8) is gratefully acknowledged. We also would like to thank G. Thummes (Institute of Applied Physics, University of Giessen, Germany) for support.
REFERENCES
1.
2. 3.
D. Gedeon, "DC Gas Flow in Stirling and Pulse Tube Cryocoolers", in Cryocoolers, Vol. 9, edited by R.G. Ross, Jr., Plenum Press, New York, 1996, pp. 385-392
Y.L. Ju, C. Wang, Y. Zhou, "Numerical simulation and experimental verification of the oscillating flow in pulse tube refrigerator", in Cryogenics, Vol. 38, Number 2, 1998, pp. 169-176 C. Wang, G. Thummes, C. Heiden, "Performance study on a two-stage 4 K pulse tube cooler" in Advances in Cryogenic Engineering, Vol. 43, edited by P. Kittel, Plenum Press, New York, 1998, pp. 2055-2062
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Investigations to the long-term operational behaviour of GM-pulse tube cryocoolers

Additional information on AIP Conf. Proc.

INVESTIGATIONS TO THE LONG-TERM OPERATIONAL BEHAVIOUR OF GM-PULSE TUBE CRYOCOOLERS

A. Siegel, H.U. Hafner Leybold Vakuum GmbH Koln, 50968, Germany

FIGURE 2. Two stage Leybold pulse tube cryocooler

FIRST MEASUREMENT RESULTS

| T-l.St. T-l.St.PT-mid T-l.St.-Reg-mid

stage refrigeration capacity 60 W)

120 144 168

192 216 240 264 288

stage refrigeration capacity 60 W), optimized version

REASONS FOR INSTABILITY

MEASUREMENT RESULTS AFTER OPTIMISATION

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