KR20160078764A - Refrigerator using ultrasonic waves of piezo electric element - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a cooling apparatus using the ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element, which performs cooling using ultrasonic waves generated in a piezoelectric element. The cooling apparatus using the ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element comprises: a housing which receives working fluid to be compressed therein; a stack which is installed inside the housing to divide the inside into first and second spaces to both sides and has a channel where the working fluid vibrates and flows between the first and second spaces; a pair of heat exchangers which are formed in both sides of the stack inside the housing; and a piezoelectric element which is formed inside the housing to face any one of the heat exchangers.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a cooling device using a piezoelectric element using ultrasound,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a cooling apparatus using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element, and more particularly, to a cooling apparatus using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element that performs cooling operation using ultrasonic waves generated in a piezoelectric element.

Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-0059898 discloses an automatic ice maker using sound wave refrigeration and a refrigerator employing this automatic ice maker. The automatic ice maker compresses and expands molecules of the inert gas stored in the U-shaped resonator by applying a negative pressure to the U-shaped resonator and the U-shaped resonator, which store the inert gas therein, A heat exchanger for transmitting the internal temperature of the U-shaped resonator to the ice tray and forming a passage therein, and an electronic control unit for operating the loudspeaker.

Thus, the wave cooling method is a method of converting the wave energy into kinetic energy to obtain the cooling effect. In another example, the wave cooling apparatus generates sound waves by a speaker provided at one side of the housing to transmit wave energy of a sound wave to an internal passage of a stack installed in the housing, And cooling and vibrating between the tile and the hot heat exchanger.

An object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device using ultrasound of a piezoelectric element that performs cooling by using ultrasonic waves generated from a piezoelectric element.

A cooling apparatus using an ultrasonic wave according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a housing having a compressible working fluid built in, a housing disposed inside the housing to partition a first space and a second space on both sides, A pair of heat exchangers provided on both sides of the stack in the housing, and a pair of heat exchangers opposed to any one of the pair of heat exchangers, And a piezoelectric element provided inside the piezoelectric element.

The pair of heat exchangers may include a cold heat exchanger installed at the side of the stack in the first space facing the piezoelectric element, and a hot heat exchanger installed at the side of the stack in the second space.

The housing is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and has first side walls and second side walls at both longitudinal ends of the rectangular parallelepiped, and the piezoelectric element can be installed on the first side wall and face the stack.

The first sidewall may include an installation hole, and the piezoelectric element may be installed in the installation hole via a coupling member made of an elastic material.

The piezoelectric element may be formed of a circular plate and may oscillate at a displacement in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the circular plate.

The plurality of piezoelectric elements may be disposed on the first sidewall.

The channels of the stack form a first length in the width direction of the stack and a first spacing in the height direction of the stack that is smaller than the first length and may be arranged in a plurality corresponding to the rectangular parallelepiped of the housing .

The channels of the stack may be arranged in a plurality corresponding to the rectangular parallelepiped of the housing, the stacks forming a second length in the height direction and a second gap in the width direction of the stack less than the second length .

The housing is formed in a cylindrical shape and includes first and second sidewalls at both longitudinal ends of the cylinder, and the piezoelectric element can be installed on the first sidewall to face the stack.

The channels of the stack form a third length in the radial direction of the stack and a third spacing in the cross direction that is less than the third length and may be arranged in a plurality corresponding to the cylinder of the housing have.

The working fluid may be argon or nitrogen. The piezoelectric element can generate ultrasonic waves of 20 to 40 KHz.

As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention, since the piezoelectric element generates ultrasonic waves and the ultrasonic waves are transmitted to the stack via the first space of the housing, the cold heat exchanger provided in the first and second spaces on both sides of the stack, Between the heat exchangers, the working fluid vibrates and moves and acts as a cooling action and heat dissipation.

The piezoelectric element vibrates at a displacement in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the disk, so that a large force can be generated with a small displacement. That is, since the piezoelectric element generates ultrasonic waves having a large force in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the disk, the working fluid can be vibrated and moved between the cold heat exchanger and the hot heat exchanger with great force,

Also, one embodiment of the present invention does not cause environmental pollution such as destruction of the ozone layer due to the existing refrigerant.

1 is a perspective view showing a cooling device using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG.
Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the vibration state of the piezoelectric element in Fig. 2. Fig.
4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in Fig.
FIG. 5 is a partial detail view showing the channel of the stack in detail in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a stack of a piezoelectric element according to a second embodiment of the present invention in a cooling apparatus using ultrasonic waves.
7 is a perspective view showing a cooling device using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a cross-sectional view cut along the line VIII-VIII in FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and the same or similar components are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the specification.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a cooling device using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view cut along the line II-II in FIG.

1 and 2, the cooling apparatus 1 of the first embodiment comprises a housing 10 housing a compressible working fluid, a stack 20 having a channel 21, And a pair of heat exchangers (31, 32) and a piezoelectric element (40).

For example, the housing 10 is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape and incorporates a working fluid, and the first side wall 11 and the second side wall 12 are sealed at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the rectangular parallelepiped. The working fluid can be argon or nitrogen, which can prevent environmental contamination such as ozone layer breakdown due to refrigerant used in conventional cooling equipment.

The stack 20 is installed inside the housing 10 and divides the first space S1 and the second space S2 to both sides and forms a working fluid between the first space S1 and the second space S2. To move while vibrating.

The first space S1 is set between the first side wall 11 and one side of the stack 20 and the second space S2 is set between the second side wall 12 and the stack 20).

A pair of heat exchangers (31, 32) is provided on both sides of the stack (20) inside the housing (10). That is, the pair of heat exchangers 31 and 32 are installed in the first space S1 at the side of the stack 20 to absorb the ambient heat and the cold heat exchanger 31 in the second space S2, And is a hot heat exchanger 32 that mainly emits heat.

The piezoelectric element (40) is provided inside the housing (10) and faces the cold heat exchanger (31). That is, the piezoelectric element 40 is provided on the first side wall 11 and faces the stack 20. The piezoelectric element 40 serves as an ultrasonic generator. The first space S1 set on one side of the piezoelectric element 40 acts as a resonator with respect to ultrasonic waves generated in the piezoelectric element 40. [

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the vibration state of the piezoelectric element in Fig. 2. Fig. 3, the first side wall 11 has an installation hole 111, and the piezoelectric element 40 is installed in the installation hole 111 via a coupling member 41 made of an elastic material.

The piezoelectric element 40 is formed of a circular plate, and when a voltage of 110 to 220 V is applied, the piezoelectric element 40 vibrates at a displacement perpendicular to the plane of the circular plate. The vertical displacement of the piezoelectric element 40 can have a strong force even when the amount of displacement of the disk is small.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a plurality of piezoelectric elements 40 are arranged on the first sidewall 11. The piezoelectric elements 40 generate ultrasonic waves of 20 to 40 KHz. Since the ultrasonic wave has a short wavelength as compared with the sound waves of the speaker used in the prior art, the length of the first space S1 serving as the resonator in the housing 10 can be shortened.

Meanwhile, the first sidewall 11 and the first space S1 may be formed by the module M so as to correspond to the piezoelectric elements 40, respectively. That is, in the first embodiment, the first sidewall 11, the first space S1, and the piezoelectric elements 40 form nine modules M in three rows and three columns in the xz direction. Each of the modules M can be inserted and withdrawn in the first space S1 of the housing 10. [

Therefore, when one of the piezoelectric elements 40 fails, the first side wall 11 provided with the failed piezoelectric element 40 and the module M in the first space S1 are removed and the normal module M is removed. You can install it. That is, the maintenance of the cooling device using the ultrasonic waves of the piezoelectric element can be facilitated.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in Fig. 4, the channel 21 of the stack 20 has a first length L1 in the width direction (x-axis direction) and a height direction (z-axis direction in the stack 20) To form a first gap G1 smaller than the first length L1.

The channels 21 set at the first length L1 and the first gap G1 are arranged in a plurality corresponding to the passage area set at the cross section of the rectangular parallelepiped housing 10 in the xz direction. A plurality of channels 21 are pierced in the y-axis direction in the stack 20 (see Fig. 2).

FIG. 5 is a partial detail view showing the channel of the stack in detail in FIG. 5, the stack 20 may be set by laminating a plate 22 that forms the channel 21. [

That is, the plate 22 forms a groove 221 having a 1/2 depth of the first gap G1. Therefore, the two grooves 221 facing each other by the plates 22 stacked next to each other set the channel 21 of the first gap G1.

The cold heat exchanger 31 and the hot heat exchanger 32 provided on both sides of the stack 20 are provided with channels corresponding to the channels 21 so that the first space S1 ) And the second space (S2). Therefore, the vibration and movement of the working fluid in the first space S1 and the second space S2 can be made with the channel 21 therebetween.

In the first embodiment, the piezoelectric elements 40 are arranged in three rows and three columns in the xz direction (Fig. 1), and the channels 21 are arranged in three columns so as to correspond to three columns of the piezoelectric elements 40. [ Since the piezoelectric elements 40 are arranged at equal intervals with respect to the first side wall 11, the ultrasonic waves generated in the piezoelectric elements 40 can be uniformly transmitted to the channels 21 via the first space S1 .

3, when a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element 40, the piezoelectric element 40 formed of a circular plate vibrates in a direction perpendicular to the plane, and the first space S1 on the first side wall 11 side, Thereby generating ultrasonic waves.

The ultrasonic waves are supplied to the channel 21 of the stack 20 and the hot heat exchanger 32 through the first space S1 and the cold heat exchanger 31 and are supplied through the hot heat exchanger 32 to the second space S2 ). The ultrasonic waves also travel in the opposite direction.

The ultrasonic waves passing through the channel 21 cause the working fluid to vibrate within the channel 21. At this time, the working fluid oscillates and moves between the cold heat exchanger (31) side and the hot heat exchanger (32) side.

In this process, heat is discharged through the hot heat exchanger 32 at the highest temperature of the hot water exchanger 32, that is, at the high temperature part of the plate 22 for setting the channel 21 (ST1). When the working fluid oscillates and moves from the hot heat exchanger 32 side to the cold heat exchanger 31 side, the working fluid is expanded while being cooled (ST2).

Heat is absorbed through the cold heat exchanger 31 to the low temperature section of the plate 22 for setting the lowest temperature and low pressure, that is, the channel 21 formed on the side of the cold heat exchanger 31 (ST3). As a result, the cooling action is realized at the cold heat exchanger 31 side. When the working fluid oscillates and moves from the cold heat exchanger 31 side to the hot heat exchanger 32 side, the working fluid is heated while being shrunk (ST4).

The cooling device 1 of the first embodiment is configured such that the heat releasing action ST1 in the hot heat exchanger 32 as described above, the expansion cooling action ST2 in the oscillating movement of the working fluid, the heat absorbing action ST2 in the cold heat exchanger 31 ST3) and shrinkage heating action (ST4) when the vibration of the working fluid is shifted, while simultaneously discharging heat in the hot heat exchanger (32) and simultaneously realizing a cooling action in the cold heat exchanger (31).

At this time, the piezoelectric element 40 is vibrated in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the disk, and generates ultrasonic waves of a large force. Accordingly, the working fluid in the panel (21) between the cold heat exchanger (31) and the hot heat exchanger (32) can vibrate and move with a great force and can effectively implement the cooling action and the heat releasing action.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be described. The description of the same configuration as that of the first embodiment and the previously described embodiment will be omitted, and different configurations will be described.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a stack of a piezoelectric element according to a second embodiment of the present invention in a cooling apparatus using ultrasonic waves. 5, in the cooling apparatus 2 of the second embodiment, the channel 61 of the stack 60 is formed such that the stack 60 forms a second length L2 in the height direction (z-axis direction) A second gap G2 smaller than the second length L2 in the width direction (x-axis direction) of the stack 60 is formed.

The channels 61 set at the second length L2 and the second gap G2 are arranged in a plurality corresponding to the passage area set at the cross section of the rectangular parallelepiped housing 10 in the xz direction. A plurality of channels 61 are pierced in the y-axis direction in the stack 60 (see Fig. 2).

In the second embodiment, the piezoelectric elements 40 are arranged in three rows and three columns in the xz direction (FIG. 1), and the channels 61 are arranged in three rows so as to correspond to three rows of the piezoelectric elements 40. Since the piezoelectric elements 40 are arranged at equal intervals with respect to the first sidewall 11, the ultrasonic waves generated by the piezoelectric element 40 and the working fluid corresponding to the ultrasonic waves are transmitted to the channels 61 via the first space S1 Can be uniformly transmitted.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating a cooling device using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element according to a third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view cut along the line VIII-VIII in FIG.

7 and 8, in the cooling device 3 of the third embodiment, the housing 70 is formed as a cylinder and incorporates a working fluid, and has first and second side walls 71 and 71 at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the cylinder, Two side walls 72.

The stack 80 is installed inside the housing 70 and divides the first space S3 and the second space S4 into two sides. The cold heat exchanger 91 is installed at the side of the stack 80 in the first space S3 and the hot heat exchanger 92 is installed at the side of the stack 80 in the second space S4.

The first sidewall 71 and the first space S3 may be defined by the module M3 so as to correspond to the respective piezoelectric elements 40. [ That is, in the second embodiment, the first sidewall 71, the first space S3, and the piezoelectric elements 40 form one module at the center of the first sidewall 71 and six modules M3 at the periphery thereof . Each of the modules M3 can be inserted and withdrawn in the first space S3 of the housing 70. [

Therefore, when one of the piezoelectric elements 40 fails, the first side wall 71 provided with the failed piezoelectric element 40 and the module M3 in the first space S3 are removed and the normal module is mounted . That is, the maintenance of the cooling device using the ultrasonic waves of the piezoelectric element can be facilitated.

The piezoelectric element 40 is provided inside the housing 70 and faces the cold heat exchanger 91. That is, the piezoelectric element 40 is provided on the first side wall 71 and faces the stack 80.

The channel 81 of the stack 80 forms a third length L3 in the radial direction of the stack 80 and a third gap G3 in the radial direction that is less than the third length L3 in the cross direction do. The channels 81 set to the third length L3 and the third gap G3 are arranged in a plurality corresponding to the passage area set on the cross section in the radial direction of the cylindrical housing 70. [

The stack 80 can be set by concentrically engaging and laminating the cylindrical members 82 that form the channel 81. 8 shows a state in which the stack 80 is installed in the housing 70 by coupling the three cylindrical members 82 together.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, And it goes without saying that the invention belongs to the scope of the invention.

1, 2, 3: cooling device 10, 70: housing
11, 71: first side wall 12, 72: second side wall
20, 60, 80: Stack 21, 61, 81: Channel
22: plate 31, 91: cold heat exchanger
32, 92: hot heat exchanger 40: piezoelectric element
82: Cylindrical member 111: Mounting hole
221: grooves G1, G2, G3: first, second and third spacings
L1, L2, L3: first, second and third lengths M, M3:
S1, S3: first space S2, S4: second space

Claims (12)

A housing housing a compressible working fluid;
A stack provided inside the housing and partitioning the first space and the second space to both sides and having a channel through which the working fluid vibrates and moves between the first space and the second space;
A pair of heat exchangers provided on both sides of the stack in the housing;
And a pair of heat exchangers disposed in the housing,
And a piezoelectric element.
The method according to claim 1,
The pair of heat exchangers
A cold heat exchanger installed on the side of the stack in the first space so as to face the piezoelectric element, and
And a hot heat exchanger installed at the side of the stack in the second space.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the housing is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape and has first and second side walls at both side ends in the longitudinal direction of the rectangular parallelepiped,
Wherein the piezoelectric element is provided on the first side wall and uses ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element facing the stack.
The method of claim 3,
Wherein the first side wall has a mounting hole,
Wherein the piezoelectric element is provided in the mounting hole via an engaging member made of an elastic material.
The method of claim 3,
The piezoelectric element
A cooling device using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element which is formed of a disk and vibrates at a displacement in the direction perpendicular to the disk plane.
The method of claim 3,
The piezoelectric element
And a plurality of piezoelectric elements arranged on the first sidewall.
The method of claim 3,
The channels of the stack
The stack forming a first length in a width direction and a first spacing in a height direction of the stack less than the first length,
And a plurality of piezoelectric elements arranged in correspondence with the rectangular parallelepiped of the housing.
The method of claim 3,
The channels of the stack
The stack forming a second length in a height direction and a second gap in a width direction of the stack less than the second length,
And a plurality of piezoelectric elements arranged in correspondence with the rectangular parallelepiped of the housing.
The method according to claim 1,
The housing is formed as a cylinder, and has first and second sidewalls at both longitudinal ends of the cylinder,
Wherein the piezoelectric element is provided on the first side wall and uses ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element facing the stack.
10. The method of claim 9,
The channels of the stack
Forming a third length in the radial direction of the stack and a third spacing in the radial direction less than the third length in an intersecting direction,
And a plurality of piezoelectric elements arranged in correspondence with the cylinder of the housing.
The method according to claim 1,
The working fluid
A cooling device using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element which is argon or nitrogen.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the piezoelectric element is a cooling device using ultrasonic waves of a piezoelectric element which generates ultrasonic waves of 20 to 40 KHz.

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