First product-oriented modular elastocaloric cooler for industrial and life-science applications

Elastocaloric cooling represents an emerging solid-state refrigeration technology with significant potential for integration into compact life-science instrumentation requiring sustainable and precise thermal management. Through the repeated conditioning of a confined air volume within a closed-loop architecture, the system achieves high thermodynamic efficiency while eliminating the need for environmentally hazardous refrigerants. To facilitate maintenance and minimize operational downtime, the central elastocaloric module is conceived as a readily exchangeable unit. This design approach enables a compact and modular cooling solution suited for highly sensitive applications within the life-science domain.

This work concentrates on the development of the final design concept for the first product-oriented elastocaloric cooler and examines the functional principles and operational characteristics of the device. The performance of the NiTi-wire based system is subsequently evaluated using experimental data and compared to the results of the preceding design and simulation.