Proceedings of the National Conference on Cryogenics for Space (NCCS-2019)

December 12-14, 2019, LPSC, Thiruvananthapuram, India.

NCCS-2019-1023

Numerical Study on porosity optimization of the regenerator for a

miniature Stirling cryocooler
Shital Kumar Garg *, Manmohan Singh

Cryogenics Division, Solid State Physics Laboratory, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO),
Timarpur, Delhi-110054
*Corresponding Author: shital.garg@sspl.drdo.in

ABSTRACT Greek symbols

The efficiency of miniature Stirling cryocooler primarily
depends upon the porosity of wire meshes used in the
regenerator. Low porosity (fine mesh) regenerator requires a
higher capacity compressor to compress working fluid due to
high-pressure drop. On the other hand, high porosity (coarse
mesh) leads to less effectiveness of regenerator. In this study,
a CFD analysis is done to obtain an optimum porosity of the
regenerator for the cooling capacity of 0.5W @80K. Heat
transfer analysis in the porous zone is done using the local
thermal equilibrium (LTE) model. A parametric study is
carried out with the wire mesh size of 200, 300, 400, and
500. The optimum wire mesh found is 400. The present study
can show characteristics of the regenerator accurately to
optimize the wire mesh size.
Keywords: Cryocooler, Stirling, regenerator, porosity,
optimization
NOMENCLATURE
interfacial area density, m-1
Forchheimer coefficient
C inertial resistance, m-1
hydraulic diameter, m
wire diameter, m
heat transfer coefficient, W/m2K
k fluid thermal conductivity, W/mK
K permeability, m2
aperture length, m
Reynolds number based on hydraulic
diameter
S source term
t time, s
T temperature, K
u velocity
V swept volume of the compressor, m3
diameter-pitch ratio
β open area ratio
ε porosity
pitch, m
Suffix
f fluid
s solid
w wire mesh
h hydraulic
sf solid-fluid
eff effective
1. Introduction
Stirling refrigerators have arisen from a long
competitive development and evaluation as the preferred
choice for miniature cryocooler, which is used in night vision
and missile guidance systems [1].
In an experimental and theoretical study by Singh et
al. [2], a miniature Stirling was developed and theoretically
analyzed the regenerator losses. The authors optimize the
porosity of regenerator theoretically on the basis of
regenerator efficiency, and optimum porosity found was 400.
Garg et al. [3] performed a numerical study of the
regenerator using LTE and LTNE models. The authors used a
commercial CFD solver to investigate the thermal properties
in the regenerator and compared the cooldown time of the
regenerator. Present work is an extension of this work.
A lot of work can be done in the field of cryogenics
to find out the ways to increase the regenerator efficiency.
Various parameters such as wire diameter, mesh porosity,
etc. can be altered to increase the regenerator efficiency.
2. Numerical model
2.1 Problem Statement
The main objective of our study was to do find
optimum porosity of regenerator of Stirling cryocooler using

numerical simulation. The effect of wire mesh size on
cooldown time has been investigated numerically. A
parametric study was conducted using wire mesh size of 200,
300 400, and 500. The main motive of the optimization is to
maximize the available refrigeration by regulating the values
of the fundamental regenerator parameters such as the length,
diameter, and porosity.
2.2 Governing Equations
The continuity and momentum conservation
equations, as mentioned by De et al.[4] can be written as
(1)
(2)
The source term S is non-zero in the porous region.
The momentum source term S, as described by Vafai and
Tien [5], is as follows
(3)
The energy equation for the regenerator (using LTE
model), can be described as [6].
(4)
Forchheimer Coefficient, here
Inertial Resistance, (7)
Permeability, K= (8)
The interfacial area density and heat transfer
coefficient of the porous zone can be written as [9].
Interfacial Area Density (9)
Heat Transfer Coefficient
(10)
The variation of inertial resistance and permeability
of wire mesh with wire mesh No. is shown in Fig 1. The
porous properties are calculated using Equation No. (9) and
(10) and given in the table No.1. It can be seen that as the
wire mesh No. increases permeability decreases linearly up to
wire mesh No. 200. After that, it decreases slowly while
inertial resistance increases almost linearly from wire mesh
No. 200 to 500, as shown in Fig 1.
The variation of heat transfer coefficient and
interfacial area density of wire mesh with wire mesh No. is
shown in Fig 2. As the wire mesh No. increases, interfacial
area density increase linearly, and also, the heat transfer
coefficient increases with wire mesh No., but not linearly, as
shown in Fig 2.

+ (1- (5)
1e-9 25000
Permeability
+ (1- (6) 8e-10 Inertial Resistance 20000

Inertial resistance (m )
-1
Permeabilty (m2)

6e-10
15000

3. Result and discussion 4e-10

10000
2e-10

As current work is an extension of the research article 0

5000

by Garg et al. [3], so the computational domain and solution 0

methods were the same. Simulations were performed for wire 100 200 300 400 500
Wire Mesh No.
mesh 200, 300, 400, and 500 sizes.

3.1 Porous parameters of wire mesh

Figure 1: Permeability and inertial Resistance variations with
The wire mesh has an aperture length ( ) and wire diameter wire mesh No.
( and specified by a mesh number. With increasing wire mesh No. flow parameters like
Pitch, permeability and inertial resistance impact negatively and
thermal parameters like heat transfer coefficient and
Porosity, ε=1-
interfacial area density impact positively. So there must be an
The porosity of wire mesh is calculated using wire optimum wire mesh No. where the performance of wire mesh
diameter and aperture length, as mentioned in Table No.1. can be optimized. Due to this type of behavior of porous
parameters of wire mesh of the regenerator, it is necessary to
study the variation of cool down time wrt wire mesh No.
Dia –pitch ratio and open area ratio can be written as follows
[7].
3.2 Cool down time
Dia-Pitch Ratio To find out optimum porosity of wire mesh of the
regenerator, a numerical study to find out cool down time
Open Area ratio, β=
The inertial coefficient and permeability of the
regenerator can be described as below[8].
 Table 1: Porous Parameters varying wrt to Mesh Size

Wire Wire Dia Aperture Porosit Permeability Inertial Heat transfer Interfacial
Mesh (m) (m) y (m2) Resistance coefficient Area Density
No. (m-1) (W/m2K) (m-1)
200 5.10E-05 7.60E-05 0.6848 1.65E-10 8272.04 4056.81345 24724.41
300 3.10E-05 5.40E-05 0.7137 8.04E-11 12131.00 4994.81701 36941.18
400 2.50E-05 3.85E-05 0.6909 4.21E-11 16452.89 5562.4037 49448.82
500 2.50E-05 2.58E-05 0.6137 1.98E-11 23413.38 5630.15665 61811.02

was also conducted for the regenerators of wires mesh size of with the wire mesh size of 200, 300, 400, and 500. The
200, 300, 400, and 500. Fig. 3 shows the variation of cold tip optimum wire mesh found was 400.
temperature with time for the regenerators of wires mesh size
of 200, 300, 400, and 500. It can be seen from the figure that
optimum cool down time was found for wire mesh 400. Acknowledgments
The authors express their sincere thanks to Dr.
Seema Vinayak, Director SSPL, for her support during this
6000 70000
analysis.
Heat Transfer coefficient
Heat transfer coefficient ( W/m2-K)

60000
5500 Area density

50000
5. References
Area density (m-1)

5000

40000
4500
30000 [1] G. Walker, Miniature refrigerators for cryogenic
4000 sensors and cold electronics. Clarendon Press,
20000
Oxford New York, 1989.
3500
10000
[2] M. Singh, M. Sadana, S. Sachdev, and G. Pratap,
3000
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
0 “Development of miniature Stirling cryocooler
Wire Mesh No.
technology for infrared focal plane array,” Def. Sci.
J., vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 571–580, 2013.
[3] S. K. Garg, B. Premachandran, and M. Singh,
Figure 2: Heat transfer coefficient and interfacial area density
“Numerical study of the regenerator for a miniature
variation with wire mesh No
Stirling cryocooler using the local thermal
equilibrium (LTE) and the local thermal
nonequilibrium (LTNE) models,” Therm. Sci. Eng.
Prog., vol. 11, no. June, pp. 150–161, 2019.
350 [4] J. S. Marcelo, D. Lemos, and Marcelo B. Saito,
“Interfacial Heat Transport in Highly Permeable
300
Wire mesh 500 Media: A Finite Volume Approach,” Cell. Porous
250 Wire mesh 400 Mater. Therm. Prop. Simul. Predict., pp. 1–30, 2008.
Wire mesh 300
K. Vafai and C. L. Tien, “Boundary and inertia
Temperature (K)

Wire mesh 200 [5]

200
effects on flow and heat transfer in porous media,”
150 Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 195–203,
100
1981.
[6] M. Kaviany, Principles of Heat Transfer in Porous
50
Media. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1995.
0 [7] K. Nam and S. Jeong, “Novel flow analysis of
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
regenerator under oscillating flow with pulsating
Time (s)
pressure,” Cryogenics (Guildf)., vol. 45, no. 5, pp.
368–379, 2005.
Figure 3: Variation of cold tip temperature vs. time using [8] A. A. Boroujerdi and M. Esmaeili, “Characterization
numerical simulation of the frictional losses and heat transfer of oscillatory
viscous flow through wire-mesh regenerators,”
4. Conclusions Alexandria Eng. J., vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 787–794, 2015.
[9] D. Gedeon, Baseline Stirling modeling. Athens (OH):
A CFD analysis was carried out to obtain an
Gedeon Associates, 1999.
optimum porosity of the regenerator for the cooling capacity
of 0.5W @80K. For this, a parametric study was carried out