An experimental analysis of a stand-alone standing-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator

AbstractIn the last years, the thermoacoustic phenomena had intensified the scientific community’s interest due to its implications in thermodynamics, heat transfer, and acoustic matters that make possible the conversion between sound and heat. This work is aimed at exploring the Russell-Weibull refrigerator, analyzing the behavior of the different parts in order to achieve a good level of thermal separation, together with the capability of working as stand-alone. Special attention was given to all those parts that need to be designed properly with explanation of the physics that ruled them, such as sound generator, woofer box, stack, and tube insulation. In the second part of the work, the results obtained are discussed, consistently showing that, if some expedients are adopted, this simple refrigerator can achieve a temperature difference of 24°C. The design choices concerning materials and geometries are shown to be of great influence on the device behavior.

[1]  Tareq Konaina,et al.  THERMOACOUSTIC SOLAR COOLING FOR DOMESTIC USAGE SIZING SOFTWARE PART (I) , 2012 .

[2]  D. Zhao,et al.  Numerical Simulating for Turbulent Heat Transfer of Structural Improved Thermoacoustic Cooler , 2012 .

[4]  Meh Hassan Tijani Loudspeaker-driven thermo-acoustic refrigeration , 2001 .

[5]  Jerald G. Graeme,et al.  Applications of operational amplifiers. Third-generation techniques , 1973 .

[6]  Mohsen Karimi,et al.  Design and optimization of a heat driven thermoacoustic refrigerator , 2014 .

[7]  John J. Wollan,et al.  Thermoacoustic natural gas liquefier , 1995 .

[8]  Daniel A. Russell,et al.  Tabletop thermoacoustic refrigerator for demonstrations , 2002 .

[9]  Steven L. Garrett,et al.  Resource letter: TA-1: Thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators , 2004 .

[10]  Zhanghua Wu,et al.  A solar-powered traveling-wave thermoacoustic electricity generator , 2012 .

[11]  G. W. Swift,et al.  Experiments with a flow-through thermoacoustic refrigerator , 2000 .

[12]  E. M. Sterling,et al.  Commissioning to avoid indoor air quality problems , 1992 .

[13]  Tetsushi Biwa,et al.  A pistonless Stirling cooler , 2002 .

[14]  P. Sivashanmugam,et al.  Experimental investigation of a thermoacoustic refrigerator driven by a standing wave twin thermoacoustic prime mover , 2013 .

[15]  Omar Abdelaziz,et al.  Status of not-in-kind refrigeration technologies for household space conditioning, water heating and food refrigeration , 2012 .

[16]  Thomas J. Hofler,et al.  Acoustic cooling engine , 1988 .

[17]  Steven L. Garrett Thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators , 2012 .

[18]  Yonglin Ju,et al.  Design and experimental investigations on a small scale traveling wave thermoacoustic engine , 2013 .

[19]  David K. Perkins,et al.  Thermoacoustic Refrigeration , 1993 .