Coupling of the electrocaloric and electromechanical effects for solid-state refrigeration

Electrocaloric (EC) materials have shown the potential to replace some of the technologies in current commercial refrigeration systems. The key problem when fabricating an efficient EC refrigerator is the small adiabatic temperature change that current bulk materials can achieve. Therefore, such a solid-state EC refrigerator should be engineered to enhance the EC temperature change by rectifying the induced EC heat flow. Here, we present a numerical study of a device that couples the EC and electromechanical (EM) effects in a single active material. The device consists of several elements made from a functional material with coupled EC and EM properties, allowing the elements to bend and change their temperature with the application of an electric field. The periodic excitation of these elements results in a temperature span across the device. By assuming heat exchange with the environment and a low thermal contact resistivity between the elements, we show that a device with 15 elements and an EC effect of 1.2 K achieves a temperature span between the hot and cold sides of the device equal to 12.6 K. Since the temperature span can be controlled by the number of elements in the device, the results suggest that in combination with the so-called “giant” EC effect (ΔTEC ≥ 10 K), a very large temperature span would be possible. The results of this work should motivate the development of efficient EC refrigeration systems based on a coupling of the EC and EM effects.