Drawn Polymer Fiber Recuperative Heat Exchangers

Polymer microchannel heat exchangers for use in cryocooler applications have been developed. These heat exchangers are manufactured using a thermal drawing process where a bulk polymer preform is heated and stretched. The process results in channels with a characteristic dimension of 50-100 µm and with an overall length of many meters. The drawn heat exchangers are lightweight, flexible, and have a large surface-area-to-volume ratio. Initial tests on a Joule-Thomson cryocooler with a heat exchanger of overall dimension of 2.5mm x 2.5mm x 400mm with nitrogen as a working fluid were performed. Nitrogen was successfully liquefied with a mass flow rate of 34 mg/s and cooling power of 200 mW at 80 K.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Adams, Jacob

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brisson, John

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright MIT

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139959

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/139959