https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02585-y
Regular Article
Heat transfer effect on the performance of thermal Brownian refrigerator
1
Institute of Thermal Science and Power Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, 430205, Wuhan, China
2
Hubei Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Green Chemical Equipment, 430205, Wuhan, China
3
School of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, 430205, Wuhan, China
b lingenchen@hotmail.com, 2506715339@qq.com
Received:
7
January
2022
Accepted:
9
March
2022
Published online:
16
March
2022
This paper builds a new thermal Brownian refrigerator model by utilizing finite time thermodynamics. Assuming that the heat transfer between reservoir and refrigerator follows Newtonian law, expressions for the cooling load and coefficient of performance (COP) are derived. The influences of heat transfer are analyzed, and the valid regions of key parameters are given. For the fixed total thermal conductance and reservoir temperatures, the maximum cooling load is obtained by optimizing the allocation of thermal conductance and the temperatures of viscous medium. The effects of external force on the optimal performance are investigated. The results indicate that the new model with thermal resistances delivers less cooling load than the non-equilibrium thermodynamic model, and the new performance characteristics are closer to reality. There exist optimal thermal conductance ratio and viscous medium temperatures to maximize the cooling load, and the COP is not affected by thermal conductance. Increasing total thermal conductance can enhance the system performance. The maximum cooling load increases versus the external force, but the corresponding COP decreases. The cooling load should not be taken as the only design objective, and the COP needs to be considered simultaneously.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022
