Numerical modelling and experimental validation of a regenerative electrocaloric cooler

Published by lahde on February 22, 2019February 22, 2019

The article was publishe in the International Journal of Refrigeration (link)

Abstrakt

This paper reports on the research and development of a cooling device with an active electrocaloric regenerator (AER) based on the bulk ceramic material (1-x)Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–xPbTiO₃ (PMN-100xPT). For the purposes of the study a 2D transient numerical model of the AER was developed. This model makes it possible to investigate the cooling characteristics of a device with an AER while considering the effect of the hysteresis of the electrocaloric material and the effect of the electric-energy recovery related to the polarization/depolarization process. The results of the numerical analyses show that the degree of electric energy recovery has a major impact on the efficiency of the device. By considering an idealised system for electric-energy recovery the energy efficiency (expressed by the coefficient of performance) of the device could be increased by up to ten times. A validation of the numerical model was performed through the design, construction and experiments on an improved AER cooling device. The results revealed a maximum specific cooling power of 16 W kg⁻¹ and a maximum temperature span of 3.1 K for the new device.