Development of a shape memory based air conditioning system

The following contribution presents a new concept of an air conditioning device based on the elastocaloric cooling effect of shape memory alloys (SMA’s). This technology provides an energy efficient and environment friendly alternative to conventional vapor compression based cooling principles. Starting from the thermodynamic investigation of the elastocaloric cooling process, a continuous operating elastocaloric air cooling device is developed. The device enables an optimized thermodynamic process control under various operating conditions as well as large temperature spans. This work presents the design process of such a system starting from SMA based heat engines to a thermodynamically optimized design of an elastocaloric air conditioning device.