Development of elastocaloric cooling technology

Elastocaloric cooling is a recently proposed not-in-kind cooling technology that is environmentally friendly and potentially more efficient than the conventional vapor compression cooling technology. It is based on the martensitic phase transformation phenomena in shape memory alloys. Series of studies have been carried out for this technology to develop a cooling system concepts and overcome many technical challenges at the University of Maryland during the past several years. The fundamental thermodynamic cycles were introduced first. Dynamic model was developed to study the system performance, guide prototype design and explore design improvement options. A single-stage mechanical driven prototype was developed as the world's first of-its-kind prototype using Ni-Ti tubes. With lessons learned from the first generation prototype, the design was significantly improved and constructed for a single-stage hydraulically driven prototype with a predicted system coefficient of performance of up to 11, and maximum system temperature lift of 24.6 K.