Abstract: Cryocoolers are used for achieving temperature below 150 K. Regenerator is an essential part of cryocooler. Regenerators are made up of metallic wire meshes. The application of proper hydrodynamic and heat transfer parameters is very much important in the analysis of wire mesh regenerator using CFD. In this paper, a review on various friction factor correlations proposed for flow through regenerators under steady and steady oscillatory flow are presented. The effect of geometric and operating parameters of the flow through porous media on the friction factor correlations is discussed. The effects of porosity, frequency, charge pressure etc are discussed in detail. Selection of suitable friction factor correlation is important for determining the Darcy and Forchheimers inertial coefficients of porous media. Thus this review will help the designer to select the proper correlation for the porous media and to decide the values of above coefficients for the analysis of the regenerator using CFD.

Keywords: Cryocooler, Regenerator, wire mesh, Porous media.