  Elastocaloric cooling has been identified as a promising alternative to high
global warming potential vapor compression cooling. Two key bottlenecks to
adoption are the need for bulky/expensive actuators to provide sufficient
uniaxial stress and inadequate elastocaloric material fatigue life. This paper
defines the physics that govern performance of axisymmetric flexural bending
for use as an emerging low-force and low-fatigue elastocaloric heating and
cooling mechanism and further demonstrates a continuous rotary-driven cooling
prototype using polycrcrystalline Ni50.7Ti48.9. Elastocaloric material
performance is determined using infrared thermography during uniaxial-tension
and four-point bending thermomechanical testing. A systematic study reveals the
effects of strain rate (from 0.001 to 0.025 s-1), maximum strain (from 2 to
8%), and strain mode on the temperature evolution, mechanical response, and
coefficient of performance. Four-point bending experiments demonstrate a
temperature reduction up to 11.3{\deg}C, material coefficients of performance
between 2.31 and 21.71, and a 6.09- to 7.75-fold reduction in required
actuation force compared to uniaxial tension. The absence of L\"uders bands and
reduced mechanical dissipation during flexure represent reduced microstructure
degradation and improved fatigue life. The rotary-based elastocaloric cooling
prototype is shown to provide similar thermomechanical performance with the
added benefit of discrete hot and cold zones, continuous cooling, inexpensive
rotary actuation, and scalability, which represents a significant advancement
for compact, long lifetime, and inexpensive elastocaloric cooling.
