THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON STANDING WAVE THERMOACOUSTIC PRIME MOVER USING DELTAEC

Ajinkya Sarode, Vijay Dighe, Vinay Ingle, Nilesh Kolekar

Abstract: Thermoacoustic is a field of science and technology that studies heat and sound interactions. It deals with the conversion of thermal energy into acoustical energy and vice-versa. Thermoacoustic prime mover is an attractive alternative for a conventional pressure wave generator to drive cryocooler which attains cryogenic temperature below 123K to liquefy gases, to produce ultra-vacuum, etc. Also, it can be used to produce electricity with the help of thermoacoustic electric generator. The cooling effect generated by thermoacoustic refrigerator can be used in areas where there is no supply of electricity. The advantages of thermoacoustic prime mover lie in its less complicated construction, absence of any moving part and use of environmental friendly gases as a working medium. Number of simulations using gases such as He, Ar, N2 and He-Ar mixture were carried out in DeltaEC to investigate the performance of the prime mover in terms of pressure amplitude, onset temperature and resonating frequency. Input parameters like working pressure and heat input was varied to observe the effect on the performance of the prime mover. The results showed that as the working pressure increased, the pressure amplitude and onset temperature also increased. Similar effect was observed in case of heat input. Unlike pressure amplitude and onset temperature, resonating frequency does not depend on working pressure and heat input. It is controlled by the working gas and the geometry of the prime mover. Also the type of the working gas has a profound impact on the performance of the prime mover. Simulations also demonstrated that a mixture of He-Ar can be used to get the optimum output from the prime mover.

Keywords: Thermoacoustic prime mover, onset temperature, pressure amplitude, resonating frequency, DeltaEC.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0304098