Elastocaloric Cooling with Porous Woven Regenerator

Obiettivo

Heating and cooling account for around half of global final energy use and more than 40% of energy-related CO2 emissions, yet today’s systems remain dominated by vapour-compression technologies that rely on high global warming potential refrigerants. Solid-state cooling replaces gaseous refrigerants with solid materials that undergo reversible thermal changes under electrical, magnetic, or stress fields. Among these, elastocaloric cooling, based on stress-induced thermal effects in shape memory alloys (SMAs), has shown outstanding potential for efficiency, compactness, and environmental compatibility. However, its progress is currently constrained by low specific cooling power (SCP), due to the limited heat transfer area in existing elastocaloric regenerators.

COOLWEAVE proposes a breakthrough solution: the novel elastocaloric cooling system based on porous woven regenerators. Inspired by textile architectures, woven SMAs provide a specific heat transfer area up to 30 times higher than conventional tube designs, enabling SCP values (27 W/g) and compact architectures far beyond the state of the art. The project pursues three objectives: (i) characterisation of thermo-mechanical behaviour in woven regenerators, including phase transformation and buckling; (ii) development and evaluation of single-stage devices, addressing heat transfer, flow distribution, and durability; and (iii) upscaling strategies through parallel, cascade, and hybrid configurations, culminating in real-world demonstrations.

The expected outcome is a new generation of high-SCP, scalable, sustainable cooling and heating technologies, with air conditioning as the primary target, while also offering potential in refrigeration, freezers, medical cold-chain storage, battery cooling, and heat pumps. By integrating materials science, mechanical engineering, and system-level innovation, COOLWEAVE will not only transform elastocaloric cooling but also open new frontiers in solid-state thermal management.