Experimental study of effects of buffer tank volume on pressure pulsation in valved linear compressor's pipe system at different frequencies

The valved linear compressor (VLC) is an essential part of the Joule-Thompson (J-T) throttling cryocooler in the liquid helium temperature region. The pressure pulsation may cause the fluctuation of the temperature and cooling capacity of the cryocooler, thus affecting its temperature stability. To measure the pressure pulsation of the VLC's pipe system, the mathematical model of pressure pulsation in the buffer tank of the VLC was established with the transfer matrix method based on the plane wave theory. The quantitative representation of the pulsating mass flow of the VLC was obtained with the linear damping based on the plane wave theory. Then, a test bench was set up to measure the pressure pulsation. The influence of the VLC's operating frequency and the suction and discharge buffer tank volume on the pressure pulsation was discussed. Results show that the pressure pulsation of the pipe system is related to the VLC's operating frequency. The pressure pulsation of the pipe system increases with the increase of the VLC's operating frequency. Both the inlet and outlet buffer tanks can effectively inhibit the pressure pulsation, but their capability is independent of each other. The pressure pulsation inhibition effect is better with the increase of the buffer tank volume. With the increase of the buffer tank volume, the pressure inhomogeneity at the inlet of the inlet buffer tank decreases to 164 over 423, but the pressure inhomogeneity at the outlet of the outlet buffer tank decreases to 8 over 23.