Testing of a Stirling cycle cooler
Stirling cycle coolers have long been used as low temperature refrigeration devices. They are relatively compact, reliable, commercially available, and use helium as the working fluid. The Stirling cycle, in principle, can be used for household refrigeration and heat pumping applications as well. Currently, these applications are almost entirely provided by the vapor compression technology using chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as working fluids. It has been known that CFCs cause depletion of the ozone layer that protects the earth against harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation from the sun. A recent report of a ''hole'' in the ozone layer above Antarctica and of possible environmental and health consequences from ozone depletion aroused public attention. The urgent need to reduce the future used of CFCs should instigate investigation of non-CFC alternative technologies. The Stirling cooler technology, which does not use CFCs, could be a viable alternative. A laboratory test of the performance of a Stirling cooler is reported and its implications for household refrigeration are explored. 11 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 6732237
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-881120-9; ON: DE88017362
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ASME winter annual meeting, Chicago, IL, USA, 28 Nov 1988; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
42 ENGINEERING
HEAT PUMPS
STIRLING CYCLE
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARNOT CYCLE
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
HELIUM
NUMERICAL DATA
OZONE LAYER
PERFORMANCE TESTING
REFRIGERANTS
REFRIGERATION
COOLING
DATA
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
GASES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
LAYERS
NONMETALS
RARE GASES
TESTING
THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES
WORKING FLUIDS
320106* - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Building Equipment- (1987-)
425003 - Engineering- Power Cycles- Stirling- (1980-)