Accession Number:

ADB207090

Title:

Quasi-Weld-Free Bellows.

Descriptive Note:

Final rept.,

Corporate Author:

ANCO ENGINEERS INC BOULDER CO

Personal Author(s):

• Raser, William
• Ibanez, Paul
• Sullivan, Arthur
• Clark, Dave

Report Date:

1995-09-01

Pagination or Media Count:

39.0

Abstract:

This research investigated the merits of certain novel bellows designs for use in Stirling and pulse tube cryocooler compressors as an alternative to the present state of the art which uses flexure bearings. The Quasi-Weldfree QWF bellows incorporates the low dead volume of welded bellows and high fatigue life of formed bellows. There was also a secondary goal to investigate the merits of alternate materials. The design started with Roark-Laupa approximations to develop a preliminary baseline. The primary design effort started by developing a curve fit from the Expansion Joint Manufactures Association EJMA handbook applicable to many different applications. The final design work was accomplished using Finite Element Analysis FEA. The design analysis found the following life is very sensitive to small changes in operating parameters, variable thickness bellows are promising, EJMA and FEA showed reasonable agreement. No hardware was fabricated but techniques were investigated.

Descriptors:

• *BELLOWS
• *REFRIGERANT COMPRESSORS
• SPACECRAFT
• FATIGUE LIFE
• FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
• CRYSTALLIZATION
• COOLING
• WELDS
• NICKEL
• STIRLING CYCLE
• SPACE BASED

Subject Categories:

• Air Conditioning, Heating, Lighting and Ventilating
• Thermodynamics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE