Regenerator performance improvement of a single-stage pulse tube cooler reached 11.1 K Original Research Article

In order to improve the cooling performance of pulse tube cooler (PTC) at 20–40 K, hybrid regenerators are often employed. In this paper a three-layer regenerator, which consists of woven wire screen, lead sphere and Er3Ni is optimized to enhance the cooling performance and explore the lowest attainable refrigeration temperature for a single-stage PTC. The efforts focus on the temperature range of 80–300 K, where woven wire screens are used. Theoretical and experimental studies are carried out to study the metal material and the mesh size effect of woven wire screens on the performance of the single-stage G-M type PTC. A lowest no-load refrigeration temperature of 11.1 K was obtained with an input power of 6 kW. The PTC can supply 17.8 W at 20 K and 39.4 W at 30 K, respectively.