Numerical Investigation of Thermal Diode-Based Elastocaloric Heat Pump Working with Different Crystalline Refrigerants and Thermoelectric Switches

Elastocaloric cooling is an emerging solid-state refrigeration technology that leverages the latent heat exchange of shape memory alloys under mechanical stress. This study inves-tigates the energy performance of a solid-to-solid elastocaloric cooling heat pump to en-hance heat transfer efficiency and overall system performance. A Matlab based numerical model, developed using the finite volume method, was employed to simulate the system. The energy performances of the elastocaloric heat pump are analyzed by varying the fre-quency of the cycle, the elastocaloric refrigerants and the types of thermal diodes, from ideal up to realistic Peltier switches. The results demonstrate that the strategic use of thermal diodes significantly improves heat flow directionality, reducing thermal losses and enhancing the efficiency of the elastocaloric cooling process. These findings contrib-ute to the development of more efficient solid-state cooling technologies, offering a viable alternative to conventional systems also for electronic circuits cooling applications.