Cqqpzics 35 ( 1995) 3 1I-3 I 6 0 1995 Elsevier Science Limited Printed in Great Britain. All tights reserved 001 l-2275/95/$10.

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Preliminary experimental and numerical study of transient characteristics for a Joule-Thomson cryocooler
F.-C. Chou, C.-F. Pai, S.B. Chien* and J.S. Chen*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan, Republic of China Chung-Shen Institute of Technology, Lung-Tung, Taiwan, Republic of China Received 27 September 1994; revised 14 November 1994

To establish a tool for computer-aided design, a preliminary experimental and numerical study of transient characteristics for a Joule-Thomson (J-T) cryocooler is developed in the present work. A simplified transient one-dimensional model of momentum and energy transport is used to simulate the flow and heat transfer characteristics. The computational results for cool-down time agree with the experimental data. The transient temperature variations of high pressure gas, tube wall, low pressure gas, glass Dewar and mandrel at the grid point near the valve exit are shown. From the spatial temperature distributions of high and low pressure gases along the finned tube at the moment of cool-down, it is proposed that the J-T cooler currently used may be reduced in terms of both size and weight; factors which are very important in a miniature J-T cryocooler. Keywords: Joule-Thomson cryocooler; cool-down time; transient characteristics

Nomenclature
; A 4 CP C Q 1 h ;: PI, Pr Re T T,, t u V Cross-sectional area of flow passage Peripheral area for heat transfer Specific heat at constant pressure Specific heat for solids Diameter of tube Diameter of helix Fanning friction factor Volume flow rate Convective heat transfer coefficient Mass Pressure of gas Inlet pressure for J-T cooler Prandtl number, u/a Reynolds number, UDJv Temperature Inlet temperature for J-T cooler Time Cross-sectional averaged velocity Volume

Specific volume, Vlm Axial co-ordinate along finned tube

Greek letters d!
V

Thermal diffusivity Kinematic viscosity Density

Subscripts a cu d ; t m
0 SS

After J-T expansion Copper Dewar Glass High pressure Inside of tube Low pressure Mandrel Outside of tube Stainless steel Tube wall

The miniature Joule-Thomson (J-T) cryocooler is widely used due to its features of short cool-down time, simplicity of construction and small overall dimensions. There has been limited experimental and theoretical work on the characteristics of J-T coolers.

Experiment data of heat transfer and friction factors for J-T coolers using nitrogen and hydrogen were reported by Geist and Lashmet. Tests on the running time and flow rates of a J-T cryostat were reported by Buller. Measurement of friction factors for the flow of gases in the very

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J-T cooler

fine channels used for J-T coolers was reported by Wu and Little3. It is worthy of note that the above experiments were all conducted under the steady state condition. Concerning cool-down time, which is one of the most important working parameters for a J-T cooler, a statistical analysis correlating the so called easily measured parameters was presented by Bodio and Wilczek4. Following this, the scaling law and similarity conditions based on the dimensional analysis theory were presented by Bodio and Chorowsk? and Bodio et aL6. However, a numerical simulation of the transient characteristics of a J-T cooler has not yet been presented. For the purpose of establishing a tool for computer-aided design, a numerical simulation of the transient characteristics of a JT cooler is developed in the present work. The computed results of cool-down time are compared with experimental data.

Figure 2

Schematic

of Joule-Thomson

cooler

Experimental

apparatus

and procedures

In the preliminary study, the flow-regulating mechanism was not considered in order to simplify the present analysis. The flow-regulating mechanism was operated by a bellows set which senses the temperature of low pressure gas and controls the motion of a valve needle. Therefore, in the present experiment, the valve needle which enters the valve seat at the exit of the finned tube was removed. The test system is shown in Figure 1. Nitrogen gas of 99.998% purity was pumped into a tank up to 41.38 MPa (6000 psi). On discharge from the tank, the pressure of the nitrogen gas flow was regulated by the needle valve Vl and regulator. The pressure of the nitrogen gas flow, which is also the inlet pressure Pi, for the test J-T cooler, was measured by a gauge in the regulator. Since some undesired particles may still reside in the pipeline, a molecular sieve filter and a gas purity monitor were used to ensure the high purity of the nitrogen gas flow. Before entering the cooling detector unit (CDU), a needle valve V3 was used as the on-off control for the flow. After leaving the test cooler the gas passed through a digital flowmeter, then vented to the atmosphere. The value of flow rate was recorded in a recorder. The output voltage of the detector was also recorded in the recorder. It is noted that the value of output voltage depends on the temperature of the detector. The experimental procedures are as follows: 1 assemble the components and pipeline as shown in Figure 2, and ensure there is no leakage; Gas purity monitor

check and measure the pressure of the tank (Vl, V2 and V3 were all closed); adjust the inlet pressure to Pi = 20.69 MPa using the regulator; open Vl and V3 to ensure the purity of the nitrogen gas, then close V3; adjust the sensitivity for the output voltage of the detector to 20 mV cm-, and adjust the speed of the recorder to 15 cm mini; open V2, and record the flow rate and the output voltage of the detector; close V2 after the output voltage of the detector has reached an asymptotic value; and readjust the inlet pressure to 15.17 and 11.03 MPa, and repeat steps 6 and 7. The time-variations of flow rate and output voltage of the detector were obtained using steps 6 and 7. It was found that the variation of flow rate is rather small under a fixed Pi, during the experiment. Thus the relations between flow rate and cool-down time for cases of inlet pressure Pi, = 20.69, 15.17 and 1 I .03 MPa can be obtained. The measured flow rates are around 0.00024, 0.00017 and 0.00011 kg s- for the cases where Pi, = 20.69, 15.17 and 11.03 MPa, respectively.

Theoretical

analysis

A schematic of the J-T cooler is shown in Figure 2. To simulate the transient behaviour of the J-T cooler, there are three main tasks: 1 2 3 modelling materials; simulation simulation of properties of nitrogen gas and cooler

of J-T expansion process; and of heat and fluid flows in the cooler.

Needle valve yv Vl NiT$n 6OOOri

Regulator

Needle valve Flowmeter

Figure 1

Experimental test system

The modelling of specific heat C, and simulation of the JT expansion process for nitrogen gas have been done by Chou et aZ.7. It was found that the final temperature T, following J-T expansion of nitrogen gas can be predicted well by equalizing the value of enthalpy after expansion to that before expansion and using the Peng-Robinson8 equation to calculate the departure function. The subscript a denotes the quantity after J-T expansion. The modelling of other temperature-dependent properties for the nitrogen gas and cooler materials, such as the viscosity of nitrogen and the specific heats of copper (for the finned tube), stainless steel (for the mandrel) and glass (for the Dewar), are presented in this work. The simulation of heat and fluid flows in the cooler is also developed in the present work. The viscosity of nitrogen gas is calculated by the Lucas9

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Viscosity(kg/m-set) -cS.OOWE-5 ---__-_ ___ 4!XQOE-5 _._ -.-._ _._ 200abn 15Oatm ,matm 20atm

Cc, = - 2.73 x lo-* + 1.34 x 1tX3T - 5.411 x 10-6p + 7.57 x 10-9p c,, = -2.15 x 10-2 + 8.56 x lO+TC, = -6.65 x IO-* + 2.93 x 104T - 3.81 x lo-771 + 2.45 x lO-OT3 (31 1.49 x lo-6Tl (1) (2)

1am 1atm.Data on
Timmerbaus ~1ynd0 8

-c3.0WOE-5 -

2 OOOOE-5 -

l.OOOJE-5 -

100

150

200

250

300

Temperature(K) Figure 3 Variations of viscosity with temperature for nitrogen gas and pressure

method. The variation of viscosity with temperature and pressure for nitrogen gas is shown in Figure 3. The data from Timmerhaus and FlynnlO for 1 atm* are also shown for comparison. The present results for 1 atm agree with the data. It is seen that as the temperature of nitrogen gas decreases, the value of viscosity for high pressure nitrogen gas, say P > 20 atm, increases, while the viscosity of low pressure nitrogen gas, say P = 1 atm, decreases. The modelling of temperature-dependent specific heats for copper, stainless steel and glass are obtained by curve fitting the experimental data in Timmerhaus and Flynn. A comparison between the results from modelling and experimental data is shown in Figure 4, and the relevant equations are as follows

where the subscripts cu, ss and g denote copper, stainless steep and glass, respectively. To simulate the heat and fluid flows in the J-T cooler shown in Figure 2, a one-dimensional heat and flow model is used for the flows inside and outside the finned tube coiled around the mandrel. The heat capacities of the finned tube wall, Dewar and valve seat are considered. Since the valve needle, which enters the valve seat and is used to control the flow rate, is removed in the corresponding experiment, the present simulation does not need to consider the flow-regulating process, which is accomplished by the bellows set sensing the temperature of low pressure gas. We did not consider the heat capacity of the bellows set in the present simulation, because it is very difficult to determine the transient heat interaction between the low pressure gas and the stem of the bellows set. The governing equations for the parts described above are set out in the following sections.

High and low pressure

gases

The momentum equation for the high pressure compressible gases can be written as dPldX = G*lfl(pD,) + 2dU/dX]/2 (4)

Specific Heats(cal/g-K)
Symbols Timmerhaus Flynn : 8
Lines

where: the first term on the right-hand side of the equation is due to friction along the tube wall; the second term is due to acceleration; G is the volume flow rate;f is the Fanning friction factor; D, is the diameter of the circular tube; and U is the cross-sectional averaged velocity. The Fanning friction factor for the flow in the helical tube was calculated by the empirical equation suggested by Timmerhaus and Flynn

: Present

calculation

f = 0.184 ( 1+3.5D,/D,,)lRe0~2

(5)

100

150 Tempe%e(K)

250

300

Figure4 Variations of specific heat C with glass, stainless steel and copper

temperature

for

* 1 atm = 101325 N m-2

where D, is the helical diameter and Re is the Reynolds number. It is worth noting that the values of P, T, v and Re in high and low pressure tubes are all interdependent. Therefore an iteration process was conducted to obtain the converged values of P, T, v and Re at each grid point for high pressure gas. The inlet conditions are Ti:,,= 300 K and Pi, = 20.69, 15.17 and 11.03 MPa. It is very difficult to measure the gas pressure at the exit of the valve seat, but it can be estimated by the output voltage data of the detector. It is worth noting that the output voltage of the detector will reach an asymptotic value while the nitrogen is liquefied at the exit of the valve seat. Based on the experimental data, the pressure of gas at the exit of the valve seat was estimated to be 2 atm for Pi, = 20.69 MPa. The pressure at the exit of the valve seat is given as 2, 1.73 and 1.53 atm for P = 20.69, 15.17 and 11.03 MPa, respectively. The temperature of low pressure gas after J-T expansion at the exit of the valve seat is calculated by the simulation process developed by Chou et

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F.-C. Chou et al. Tube wall The conductivity of copper, which is the tube wail and fin, is much higher than that gas. The temperature of the tube wail and sidered uniform for a mesh AX. Therefore, ation can be written as material of the of the nitrogen fin can be conthe energy equ-

~1.~. From the experimental observations, the pressure of low pressure gas at the exit of the valve seat is 22 atm for Pi, = 20.69 MPa. The outlet pressure for the low pressure gas, which is vented to the atmosphere, is 1 atm. The energy equation based on energy balance for a finite difference mesh AX can be written as follows: for high pressure gas pCp4AX[ 8rJat + U(aTjJaX)] = -hd,i( Th - Tw) (6)

mwCcu(~Twlat) = hdpi(Tb-Tw) h&a(T~-Tw) +

(10)

where m, is the mass of a lumped system composed of the tube wail and fin for a mesh AX. Dewar The Dewar is cooled by the low temperature, low pressure gas along its inside surface, and its outside surface is considered adiabatic. Therefore the energy equation can be written as m,C,( aT&t) = - hfi@,( T,-T,)
(11)

for low pressure gas:

where: A is the cross-sectional area for the gas flow; AX is the finite difference mesh size; h is the convective heat transfer coefficient; A, is the peripheral area for heat transfer between the gases and tube wall or Dewar or mandrel; and subscripts i and o indicate quantities for the inside and outside surface of the finned tube. In addition, the subscripts h, 1, w, d and m indicate quantities for high pressure gas, low pressure gas, tube wail, Dewar and mandrel, respectively. The high pressure tube is a helical circular tube, and the convective heat transfer coefficient h, was calculated using the empirical equation suggested by Timmerhaus and Flynn
h, = 0.023CpGRe-o~2Pr~u3( 1 + 3SD,/D,,) (8)

where md is the mass of the Dewar for a mesh AX. Mandrel The mandrel is composed of two parts: one is the valve seat, the other a tube. The bellows set is installed in the mandrel. The mandrel is cooled by low pressure gas along the outside surface, and the inside surface is considered adiabatic. Therefore the energy equation can be written as

m,G,(~~,l~t) = -~&m(~m-~,)
where m, is the mass of the mandrel for a mesh AX.

(12)

where Pr is the Prandti number of the gas. The value of convective heat transfer coefficient h, in the region outside the finned tube, which is bounded by the fin, Dewar and mandrel, was calculated using the empirical equation suggested by Timmerhaus and Flynn
h, = 0.26CpGRe4.4Pr-23 (9)

Results and discussion

To ensure that the results are independent of the time step At used, a numerical experiment was conducted. The transient temperature variations of the high pressure gas and tube wail, which are located at the grid point next to the exit of the valve seat, are shown in Figure 5 for Pi, = 20.69 MPa. It can be seen that the solid and dashed lines, which corre300 ....,...l,....,..l.,...l,,

This equation is for flows normal to the outside of in-line tubes on the shell-side of coiled-tube heat exchangers; it needs further discussion at this point. In a miniature cooler, h, is very difficult to measure and there are still no experimental data for h,. To the best of the authors knowledge, the only related data were reported by Geist and Lashmet, who estimated that the outside heat transfer coefficient was approximately equal to twice the overall heat transfer coefficients. In other words, they estimated that the resistances to heat transfer on the inside of the tube and the outside of the tube were approximately equal. But from the variation of nitrogen viscosity shown in Figure 3 for the present work, we found that as the temperature of nitrogen gas decreases, the value of viscosity for high pressure nitrogen gas increases, while the viscosity of low pressure nitrogen gas decreases. Therefore the resistances to heat transfer on the inside of the tubes and the outside of the tubes might be approximately equal if ail the gases are around room temperature. But, as the temperatures of the high and low pressure gases decrease, the different trends in viscosity will cause a more and more significant difference in the resistances to heat transfer on the inside of the tube and the outside of the tube.

Time Grid Test

10

15

20

25

Time(sec) Figure5 Test on At with transient temperature variations high pressure gas and tube wail for Pi, = 20.69 MPa of

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Transient spond to the results using At = 0.00002 and O.oooO15 s, are almost coincident. Then, in the present work, At = 0.00002 s was used. The value of At adopted is restricted by the magnitude of U in Equations (6) and (7). The magnitude of At is inversely proportional to that of U. A non-uniform mesh system is used in the present work. The first mesh AX, used to obtain the results shown in Figure 5 is 4 mm, which is approximately equal to the length of the circumference for one revolution of the finned tube. The first mesh is located next to the exit of the valve seat. The question why is the length of the circumference for one revolution of the finned tube taken for the first mesh? may be raised. The answer is that the flow passage for the low pressure gas is rather complicated; it is bounded by a helical finned tube in an annular gap between the Dewar and mandrel. Therefore, the spatial temperature distributions for high pressure gas, low pressure gas, tube wall and Dewar can all be considered as uniform along the first one revolution of the finned tube. The computer times range from ~150 h for the case of Pi, = 20.69 MPa to ==50 h for the case of Pi, = 15.17 MPa with an HP-720 computer. The transient temperature variations of high pressure gas, tube wall, low pressure gas, mandrel and glass Dewar, which are all located at the grid point next to the exit of the valve seat, are shown in Figures 6-8 for the cases of Pi, = 20.69, 15.17 and 11.03 MPa, respectively. The above mentioned values are all for the temperature at the grid point next to the exit of the valve seat. It can be seen in Figure 6 for Pi, = 20.69 MPa that one observes a relatively larger temperature difference between the low temperature gas and the Dewar at the beginning of the process than at cool-down. The larger temperature difference at the beginning of the process is caused by the sudden temperature drop for the low pressure gas induced by the J-T expansion through the valve seat. But convective heat transfer causes the difference to decrease with the passage of time. It is also seen that the resistance to heat transfer on the inside of the tube and that on the outside of the tube is almost equal at the beginning. But, as the cool-down time is approached, the resistance to heat transfer on the inside of the tube becomes significantly less than that on the outside of the tube. It is also seen in Figure 6 that the temperature of low
20.69MPs

characteristics

for J-T

cryocooler:
15.17MPs

F.-C. Chou et al.

---High -------Tubewall -

pressure gas-

-.- -. Low pressure gas dewar

----Glass -------Mandrel

20

25

30

35

40

Time(sec)

Figure 7 Transient temperature variations for high pressure gas, tube wall, low pressure gas, glass Dewar and mandrel under the condition pi, = 15.17 MPa
11.03MPn

-----High pressure gas__..___Tubawall _ -._ _ Low pressure gas_ -4las.s dewar P-.-P~~Mandrel

25

50

75

Time(sec)

Figure 8 Transient temperature variations for high pressure gas, tube wall, low pressure gas, glass Dewar and mandrel under the condition Pi, = 11.03 MPa

High pressure gas _ - --.-.-.-. e -----Tube wall Low pressure gas Glass dewar Mandrel -

10

Time(sec)

15

20

25

Figure 6 Transient temperature variations for high pressure gas, tube wall, low pressure gas, glass Dewar and mandrel under the condition P,, = 20.69 MPa

pressure gas gradually approaches an asymptotic value, which is -85 K for Pi, = 20.69 MPa, and ~87 K for the Dewar. The cool-down time is ~25 s. As mentioned above in the section on theoretical analysis, the gas pressure at the exit of the valve seat is assigned the value 2 atm for Pi, = 20.69 MPa. The liquefied temperature of nitrogen at the exit of the valve seat will then be ~84 K. The increase of =l K for the low pressure gas temperature at the grid point next to the exit of the valve seat is due to heat interaction with surrounding materials, such as the glass Dewar and the valve seat. It can also be seen in Figures 7 and 8 that the values of cool-down time are ~42 and 88 s for Pi = 15.17 and 11.03 MPa, respectively. Under the condition of Pi, = 20.69 MPa, the spatial temperature distributions of high pressure gas, tube wall, low pressure gas and Dewar at the time of cooling down are shown in Figure 9. It can be seen that the temperatures of the inlet high pressure gas, outlet low pressure gas, tube wall and Dewar are almost the same (that is 300 K) at the location of X = 0. There is a large temperature difference between the high and low pressure gases at the exit of the valve seat, but the temperature difference becomes rela-

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F.-C. Chou et al. 11.03 MPa. It can be seen that there is good agreement between the results of the computation and the experiments. The most important transient characteristics for a miniature J-T cooler have been monitored by the present numerical simulation.

Conclusions
To establish a tool for computer-aided design, a numerical simulation of the transient characteristics of a JouleThomson cooler is developed in the present work. Experimental measurement of the cool-down time for a J-T cooler under three inlet pressures (Pi, = 20.69, 15.17 and 11.03 MPa) was also conducted. The flow-regulating mechanism was not considered in this preliminary experimental and numerical work. Combined with the simulation of the J-T expansion process developed by Chou et al., a transient one-dimensional model of momentum and energy transport is used to simulate the flow and heat transfer characteristics. From the spatial temperature distributions of high and low pressure gases along the finned tube at the moment of cool-down, it is proposed that the currently used J-T cooler may be reduced, both in size and weight, both of which are very important factors in a miniature J-T cooler. The numerical predictions of cool-down time agree with the experimental data for Pi = 20.69, 15.17 and 11.03 MPa. The most important transient characteristics for a miniature J-T cooler have been monitored by the present numerical simulation.

_.-._._._ ._._.
_----Low pressure gas Glass dewar
100

-Mandrel

X(m) Figure 9 Spatial temperature variations for high pressure gas, tube wall, low pressure gas and glass Dewar under the condition pi, = 20.69 MPa

Acknowledgement
Financial support from the National Science Council of the Republic of China is appreciated.

References
Cooldown time(sec) Figure10 Comparison experimental data of predicted cool-down time with Geist, J.M. and Lashmet, P.K. Miniature Joule-Thomson refrigeration systemsAdv Cryog Eng ( 1960) 5 324-331 Buller, J.S. A miniature self-regulating rapid-cooling JouleThomson cryostat Adv Ctyog Eng (1971) 16 205-213 Wu, P. and Little, W.A. Measurement of friction factors for the flow of gases in very fine channels used for microminiature JouleThomson refrigerators Cryogenics (1983) 23 273-277 Bodio, E. and Wilczek, M. Analysis of the starting time of JouleThomson microliquefier Cryogenics (1981) 21 704-706 Bodio, E. and Chorowski, M. The Joule-Thomson microliquefier described with use of dimensional analysis Cryogenics (1983) 23 469-470 Bodio, E., Chorowski, M. and Wilczek, M. On the scaling law of throttling microliquefiers Cryogenics (1984) 24 29-30 Chou, F.C., Wu, S.M. and Pai, CF. Prediction of final temperature following Joule-Thomson expansion of nitrogen gas Cryogenics (1993) 33 857-862 Peng, D.Y. and Robinson, D.B. A new two-constants equation of state Ind Eng Chem Fundam (1976) 15 59-64 Lucas, K. Phase Equilibria and Fluid Properties in the Chemical Industry, Dechema, Frankfurt, Germany (1980) 573 Timmerhaus, K.D. and Flynn, T.M. Cryogenic Process Engineering, Plenum Press, New York, USA (1989)

tively small in the region of X < 0.15. This is because the temperature difference between the high and low pressure gases is gradually smoothed out by heat transfer between the low pressure gas and the other components occurring in the region 0.15 < X < 0.525. A surprising result is thus found, that at least a third of the length of the finned tube is not very effective from the viewpoint of heat transfer for Pi, = 20.69 MPa. Therefore, based on the present simulation results, we propose that the currently used J-T cooler may be reduced, both in size and weight; both of which are important factors in a miniature J-T cooler. A comparison between the numerical prediction of cooldown time and the experimental data is shown in Figure IO. The values of inlet pressure corresponding to the three sets of experimental data are Pi, = 20.69, 15.17 and

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