Almost all experimental and theoretical studies on regenerative cryocoolers at temperatures below 20 K mention the use of 4He as working fluid.A preliminary qualitative evaluation indicates that because of the superfluid phase transition,a working fluid of 3 He would overcome the cooling temperature limitation set by 4He.Starting with a comparison of the thermophysical properties of 3He and 4He,cryogenic regenerator simulations applied to the third/last stage of a pulse tube refrigerator,with 3He and 4He separately,were implemented to quantitatively analyze performance differences of the regenerator with respect to regenerator loss, cooling power and COP.Results conclude that 3He could significantly improve the performance of a regenerative cryocooler.
