The design and fabrication of a reverse Brayton cycle cryocooler system for the high temperature superconductivity cable cooling

A high temperature superconductivity cable must be cooled below the nitrogen liquefaction temperature to apply the cable to power generation and transmission systems under superconducting state. To maintain the superconducting state, a reliable cryo-cooler system is also required. The design and fabrication of a cryocooler system have been performed with a reverse Brayton cycle using neon gas as a refrigerant. The system consists of a compressor, a recuperator, a cold-box, and control valves. The design of the system is made to have 1 kW cooling capacity. The heat loss through multilayer insulators is calculated. Conduction heat loss is about 7W through valves and access ports and radiation heat loss is about 18W on the surface of a cryocooler. The design factors are discussed in detail. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.