Development of high-efficiency Stirling cryocoolers for high temperature superconducting motors

For wide spread high-temperature superconductor (HTS) devices, a cryocooler having COP of >0.1, with a compact size, light weight, high efficiency and high reliability is required. For practical use of superconductive devices, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (SHI) developed a high-efficiency Stirling type pulse tube cryocooler (STPC). The STPC had high reliability and low vibration. However, its efficiency was not enough to meet the demands of an HTS motor. To further improve the efficiency, we reconsidered the expander of cryocooler and developed a Stirling cryocooler (STC). Two prototype units of a compact, high-efficiency split Stirling cryocooler were designed, built and tested. With the second prototype unit, a cooling capacity of 151 W at 70 K and a minimum temperature of 33 K have been achieved with a compressor input power of 2.15 kW. Accordingly, COP of about 0.07 has been achieved. The detailed design of the prototype units and the experimental results will be reported in this paper. (paper)