Abstract
The cryoprobe used in cryosurgery should be fabricated in milimeter-order size for its practical usage. In general a miniature J-T(Joule-Thomson) refrigerator is applied to a cryoprobe. In case of the miniature J-T refrigerator, the mass flow rate of working fluid is small due to considerable friction in a minute flow path. For that reason, the miniature J-T refrigerator has a limited cooling power. To obtain the large cooling power from the J-T refrigerator, the refrigerator should have large mass flow rate and effective J-T temperature drop. These quantities are closely related to the geometry of the heat exchanger and the expansion nozzle in a cryoprobe, and are contradictory. The large mass flow rate leads to the small J-T temperature drop and vice versa in the miniature J-T refrigerator. Therefore, the optimal design of a cryoprobe to achieve maximum cooling power at fixed tube size and fixed operating temperature is required. This paper presents the design procedure of such case.
