Thermoacoustic Modeling of Cryogenic Hydrogen

Future thermoacoustic cryocoolers employing hydrogen as a working fluid can reduce reliance on helium and improve hydrogen liquefaction processes. Traditional thermoacoustic modeling methods often assume ideal-gas thermophysical properties and neglect finite-amplitude effects. However, these assumpt...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inEnergies (Basel) Vol. 17; no. 12; p. 2884
Main Authors Matveev, Konstantin I., Leachman, Jacob W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2024
Subjects
Acoustics
Cold
computational fluid dynamics
cryogenics
Flow velocity
Fluid dynamics
Heat exchangers
Helium
Hydrogen
Porous materials
Simulation methods
Temperature
thermoacoustics
Thermodynamics
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Future thermoacoustic cryocoolers employing hydrogen as a working fluid can reduce reliance on helium and improve hydrogen liquefaction processes. Traditional thermoacoustic modeling methods often assume ideal-gas thermophysical properties and neglect finite-amplitude effects. However, these assumptions are no longer valid for hydrogen near saturated states. In this study, a comparison between the results of computational fluid dynamics simulations using actual hydrogen properties and a low-amplitude, ideal-gas thermoacoustic theory was carried out in a canonical plate-based stack configuration at a mean pressure of 5 bar. It was found that the simplified analytical theory significantly underpredicts the cooling power of hydrogen-filled thermoacoustic setups, especially at lower temperatures in high-amplitude, traveling-wave arrangements. In addition, a thermoacoustic prime mover was modeled at higher temperatures, demonstrating very close agreement with the ideal-gas-based theory. The CFD approach is recommended for the design of future hydrogen-based cryocoolers at temperatures below 80 K.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en17122884