A Numerical Analysis on a Single Bunch of Wires of Susstain-El: The First Italian Elastocaloric Device

Refrigeration is responsible of twenty percent of the worldwide energy consumption and the majority of the systems are based on vapor compression. In the scientific community, elastocaloric refrigeration, belonging to solid-state refrigeration technologies, is increasingly attracting interest, as a valid alternative to vapour compression. It is based on the latent heat generated as a consequence of the austenite-martensite transformation phase, a phenomenon shown by Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) as a consequence of cycles of stress/unstress under adiabatic conditions. The main SMA property is the capability of keeping memory of the initial form and being able to recover it after the remotion of the uniaxial stress (unloading). The elastocaloric effect can be exploited in a regenerative thermodynamic cycle called Active elastocaloric regenerative refrigeration cycle (AeR). The paper reports the data coming out though a numerical analysis by modelling a single bunch of elastocaloric wires crossed by air. The heat transfer and the energy performances have been investigated under a wide set of conditions: different geometrical parameters of the wires and many air flow speed.