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A multi-material cascade elastocaloric cooling device for large temperature lift

Nature Energy volume 9, pages 862–870 (2024)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 01 July 2024

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Abstract

Elastocaloric cooling using shape memory alloys is a promising candidate for next-generation environmentally friendly refrigeration. The temperature lift (Tlift), that is, the ability of the cooling device to transfer heat from a low-temperature source to a high-temperature sink, is a critical performance indicator. However, increasing the Tlift of existing elastocaloric devices is difficult due to the narrow temperature window across which the individual elastocaloric materials exhibit superelasticity (for example, ≤50 K for commercially-available NiTi shape memory alloys). Here we construct a multi-material cascade elastocaloric cooling device using NiTi with three different temperatures at which the martensite-to-austenite transition is completed, also called austenite finish temperature. By matching the working temperature distribution of the NiTi units with their austenite finish temperatures, we expand the device’s superelastic temperature window to over 100 K and achieved a Tlift of 75 K on the water side. This work demonstrates the great potential of multi-material cascade elastocaloric regenerators for space cooling in the near future.

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Fig. 1: The multi-material cascade elastocaloric regenerator and performance comparison.
Fig. 2: Temperature-dependent properties of NiTi refrigerants.
Fig. 3: Assembly of multi-material cascade regenerator and the operation.
Fig. 4: Refrigeration performance of the single-material, two-material cascade and three-material cascade regenerators.

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The data supporting the findings of this study are included within the article and its Supplementary Information files. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (GRF project no. 16204422 to S.Y. and STG project no. STG2-E-605-23N to Q.S.), the Innovation and Technology Support Programme (Mid-stream, theme-based) under the Innovation and Technology Fund (grant no. ITS/030/22MS to S.Y.) and the Project of Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone (HZQB-KCZYB-2020083 to Q.S.). We thank Z. Deng for the help with material tests, and M. Ellwood as the language advisor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Guoan Zhou, Zexi Li, Yuxiang Zhu, Shuhuai Yao & Qingping Sun

  2. Department of Engineering Mechanics, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Qiuhong Wang

  3. School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Peng Hua

  4. HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Shenzhen, China

    Qingping Sun

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  1. Guoan Zhou
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Contributions

G.Z. conceived the idea, built the elastocaloric device, ran the refrigeration tests and prepared the paper. Z.L., Q.W. and Y.Z. conducted the Ansys/Fluent simulations, tested the SMAs and prepared the Supplementary Information. P.H. revised the draft. S.Y. and Q.S. supervised the project and revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Guoan Zhou, Shuhuai Yao or Qingping Sun.

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Nature Energy thanks Jun Cui, Stefano Dall’Olio and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1 and 2, Figs. 1–22, Tables 1–5 and Videos 1–3.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Demonstration of operation of the three-material cascade elastocaloric regenerator captured with an infra-red (IR) camera from the initial state until the steady-state conditions are reached (the colour scale is in °C).

Supplementary Video 2

The corresponding compression video captured with an optical camera for the three-material cascade elastocaloric regenerator.

Supplementary Video 3

Recording of the in situ operation of the three-material cascade elastocaloric regenerator.

Supplementary Data

Technical drawings of NiTi refrigerants and loading heads.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Statistical source data.

Source Data Fig. 2

Statistical source data.

Source Data Fig. 3

Statistical source data.

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Statistical source data.

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Zhou, G., Li, Z., Wang, Q. et al. A multi-material cascade elastocaloric cooling device for large temperature lift. Nat Energy 9, 862–870 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01537-3

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