Acoustic impedance characteristics of linear compressors

The acoustic field of a linear compressor serves to deliver the compression work to the load, such as the connected cold head of a cryocooler; it plays an equivalently important role as the electrical and mechanical parts, especially in the impedance match issue. This paper studies the acoustic impedance characteristics of a linear compressor. The parameters including the current, the piston displacement, the pressure amplitude, the electrical power dissipation, the power factor, the pressure-volumetric (PV) power delivered, and the efficiency are theoretically and experimentally investigated. Different from previous theoretical studies, optimization for the operations away from the resonance is also included. More general optimization results imply relevance between thermoacoustic engines and linear compressors. The predicted results are validated by the experiments performed on a linear compressor with an adjustable resistive-capacitive (RC) acoustic load. The comparisons between the calculations and the measurements are presented and analyzed. The results provide deeper insight into the mechanism of the linear compressor and the impedance match in a cryocooler system.