Demonstration of high efficiency elastocaloric cooling with large Delta T using NiTi wires

Journal Article · Mon Aug 13 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4746257· OSTI ID:1211312

Cui, J; Wu, YM; Muehlbauer, J; Hwang, YH; Radermacher, R; Fackler, S; Wuttig, M; Takeuchi, I

Vapor compression (VC) is by far the most dominant technology for meeting all cooling and refrigeration needs around the world. It is a mature technology with the efficiency of modern compressors approaching the theoretical limit, but its environmental footprint remains a global problem. VC refrigerants such as hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are a significant source of green house gas emissions, and their global warming potential (GWP) is as high as 1000 times that of CO2 [Buildings Energy Data Book (Building Technologies Program, Department of Energy, 2009)]. There is an urgent need to develop an alternative high-efficiency cooling technology that is affordable and environmentally friendly [A. D. Little, Report For Office of Building Technology State and Community Programs, Department of Energy, 2001]. Here, we demonstrate that elastocaloric cooling (EC), a type of solid-state cooling mechanism based on the latent heat of reversible martensitic transformation, can have the coefficient of performance as high as 1 1, with a directly measured Delta T of 17 degrees C. The solid-state refrigerant of EC completely eliminates the use of any GWP refrigerants including HCFCs/HFCs. (C) 2012 American Institute. of Physics. [http://dx.doiorg/10.1063/1.4746257]

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AR0000131
• OSTI ID: 1211312
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 7; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English