Numerical study of enhanced cooling in active elastocaloric regenerators with porous woven structures
Kun Wang, Manfred Kohl, Jingyuan Xu
Abstract
Elastocaloric cooling is an emerging solid-state technology that leverages the reversible latent heat of phase transformation in superelastic shape memory alloys to achieve efficient and environmentally friendly refrigeration. The performance of the regenerator, where elastocaloric effect and heat transfer occur, critically depends on the elastocaloric material and structural design. This study employs a 1-D numerical active elastocaloric regenerator model to evaluate the cooling performance of different woven-structure regenerators. Three typical woven structures—plain weave, twilled weave, and dutch weave—are investigated across varying porosities. The results indicate that a plain weave regenerator with 30 % porosity achieves the highest performance, delivering a maximum cooling power of 485 W, a specific cooling power of 11.3 W/g, and a COP of 1.48 under a 20 K temperature span. Twilled weave regenerators exhibit comparable performance, whereas dutch weave regenerators show significantly lower cooling capabilities. Both plain and twilled weave regenerators outperform the parallel plate regenerator, increasing cooling power by a factor of 3.3, due to enhanced heat transfer and specific heat transfer area. The study highlights the potential of woven-structure regenerators for high-performance elastocaloric cooling, offering insights into optimizing regenerator design and operational parameters while emphasizing their promise for efficient and sustainable solid-state cooling systems.