A compression-driven cross-flow elastocaloric regenerator with high specific cooling power

Elastocaloric (eC) cooling is a novel solid‑state refrigeration technology that exploits the eC effect of shape memory alloy to achieve environmentally friendly cooling. The eC regenerator lies at the heart of an eC cooling system. To date, cross‑flow eC regenerators have relied on flexible housings and have yet to demonstrate satisfactory long fatigue life and high specific cooling power. This study presents a cross-flow eC regenerator with a custom-designed rigid housing to address these challenges. Compared with our previously designed flexible silicone housings, the rigid housing offers superior sealing, reduced heat loss, precise tube alignment, and extended service life. Owing to these advantages, the eC regenerator presented here survived more than one million cycles without failure and delivered a zero-temperature-span specific cooling power of 13.0 W g -1 at an operating frequency of 3 Hz. The rigid structure demonstrated in this work offers fresh insights for the design of future eC regenerators.