Case study of sintered regenerator performance in StirLIN-4 nitrogen liquefier

Stirling liquefier works on Stirling cycle to produce cooling effect. Sintered Regenerator is a key element of Stirling liquefier which directly affects the liquefier performance. Sintered regenerator is a regenerative heat exchanger where heat from the hot fluid is intermittently stored in a thermal storage medium before it is transferred to the cold fluid. The sintering process bonds together tangent metal surfaces at their points of contact without the addition of any filler metal or bonding agent. It is necessary to maintain regenerator porosity for optimum performance of liquefier. Hence Preliminary study has been carried out to find the properties of SS wire mesh matrix, how it is sintered, problems causing degradation of sintered regenerator performance. The main objective of this paper is to study different methods of maintaining sinter regenerator porosity for optimum performance.