Elastocaloric Refrigeration for Spaceflight Applications (ERSA)

Using refrigerants in spaceflight applications can impose hazards, require leak monitoring and replenishment, and result in tight operational temperature constraints. Elastocaloric cooling is an emerging high-efficiency solid-state cooling technology that can remove these constraints. The technology is based on the elastocaloric effect, a thermodynamic phenomenon associated with stress-induced solid-state phase transformation, during which the working material may absorb or release a large amount of latent heat that can be used to pump heat. The project objectives aim to develop novel elastocaloric materials and a high-performance refrigeration system for NASA exploration applications. The project objectives will be achieved by a combined materials and system effort: 1) use the newly established computation/machine learning guided high-throughput bulk metals development methodology to unravel the complex relationships between compositions, crystal structures, phase transformation, and fatigue behavior of the elastocaloric materials. 2) leverage our team member’s spacecraft design and manufacturing expertise to design a novel cooling system that can take full advantage of the newly developed material for a most suitable spaceflight application.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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