Fatigue-resistant elastocaloric regenerator with record-braking cooling and heating characteristics
date: 20.09.2022
category: Sporočila za javnost
Within the ERC SUPERCOOL project, researchers from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (UL) presented the development and operation of a new compression-loaded elastocaloric regenerator to be used in a future cooling and heat-pumping devices. Elastocaloric cooling is considered one of the most promising alternatives to the environmentally harmful vapour-compression refrigeration technology. The developed elastocaloric egenerator is the world-first elastocaloric device that shows fatigue-resistant operation and yet record-breaking cooling and heating characteristics, which in terms of their specific properties exceed all caloric cooling devices developed to date. The regenerator exceeds the temperature span of 30 K and generates the cooling and heating power above 60 W (4.4 kW per kg of used elastocaloric material). The research was published in the prestigious journal Joule (IF=46,048).
Figure: Shell-and-tube-like elastocaloric regenerator with Ni- Ti tubes
This work demonstrates that it is possible to develop fatigue-resistant elastocaloric devices with exceptional cooling and heating characteristics, which opens the door to the further development of efficient and environmentally friendly elastocaloric cooling devices.
Free access to the article https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.08.011 and https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(22)00412-3.
