Numerical simulation of a Stirling-type double inlet pulse tube refrigerator

In this paper a CFD code has been developed to investigate effects of the double inlet on the performance of a Stirling type pulse tube refrigerator. In this respect, set of governing equations have been written in a general form such that all porous and non-porous sections of the system can be modeled. In order to discretize the governing equations, a second order method has been used for time, a second order upwind method for mass, enthalpy flow and temperature in the surfaces of the control volumes and the central differential scheme has been employed for pressure and heat conduction terms. Results show that application of double inlet optimizes the phase shift between velocity and pressure and suitably decreases the fluid temperature along the pulse tube, causing to increase COP of the system. Furthermore, it is observed that a minimum temperature of 56.5 K and COP of 0.0352 @ 80 K is attainable using optimum double inlet; whereas, for a simple refrigerator a minimum temperature of 71.3 K and maximum COP of 0.0227 @ 80 K are concluded.