Future prospects for elastocaloric devices

Elastocaloric cooling (EC) is an alternative cooling technology that has been identified as having the potential to be more efficient than vapor compression systems. It is based on the elastocaloric effect, which is a change in temperature coupled to an applied uniaxial strain in materials such as NiTi alloys.

Although EC is a promising technology for energy savings in the future, there are still challenges to be addressed if it is to be commercially successful. This paper gives a summary of the state of the art and recent developments in the area as well as perspectives on the most important challenges that must be met to make the technology commercial.