Thermoacoustic Engine and Refrigerator

Advisor: Prof. Akiyoshi Iida Assistant Prof. Hiroshi Yokoyama Student: Subhan Ullah Student ID: M135117

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Contents
Introduction
Background Previous research Objective

Methodology Results until now Obtained knowledge until now To do until the final presentation Plan until the final presentation
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Introduction

Thermal
(heat energy)

Acoustic
(sound energy)

Other forms of energy (electric or mechanical etc.)

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Thermoacoustic engines main components

Regenerators (made of porous material)

Heat exchangers (hot and cold)

Resonator tube

Data recording devices

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The thermoacoustic engine convert thermal energy to acoustic (sound) power when the timing between the pressure and velocity oscillations is appropriately set in such interactions.
The regenerator or stack sandwiched between a pair of (hot and cold) heat exchangers constitutes the so-called thermoacoustic core, where the thermoacoustic energy conversion from heat to acoustic power takes place.

The high density acoustic wave can be used to produce cooling power or to drive an alternator to generate electricity.
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Background
Roughly one-third of the energy consumed by industry is discharged as thermal losses
Most of this waste energy, however, is of low quality (i.e., below 300 F (260 C) and is typically not practical or economical to recover with current technology

Multi-stage engine is seemed to recover low quality waste heat to useful work
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Previous research
K. de Blok (ASME FEDSM2010-ICNMM2010 August 2-4, 2010,
Montreal, Canada) Thermoacoustic cooking device, producing 17.6W output power Four stage TA engine (the results are not confirmed yet) Thermoacoustic power generator (TAP), this is under construction at Netherland and it will make a power of 100kW from the paper drying process

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 Tijani et al. (ECN Paper presented at acoustics 08, Paris, France,

August 1-5, 2010)

Torus shape engine with mechanical type resonator

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Objective
Our first step is to setup the existing engine and take the experimental data and analysis The second step is to make our own engine keeping in mind the discrepancies of the previous work and make effective steps to improve the efficiency Our goal is to make such an engine which will have an efficiency of 40% or more. If the efficiency really improved then our next goal is to make a commercial design
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Methodology
Information
(knowledge about the project)

Setting and analyzing

the existing engine

The methodology for this project is stemmed through the following phases

Creativity
(making our own design)

Evaluation Development Implementation

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Results until now

To know about the reality of thermoacoustics we performed a simple experiment on a pipe having a mesh working as a stack. Giving heat to the mesh we observed a loud sound. It gradually disappeared when the heat source was removed We also observed that the sound is louder at a distance of L/4 rather than L/2
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 We are at the initial state and have no special results yet regarding the project under research, but we are struggling to get experimental data soon.

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Obtained knowledge until now

As for as our project is concerned we are trying to get more knowledge as the more the knowledge the more efficient will be our research While studying about the current project, various questions also arises which needs further research e.g.,
What is the availability of the waste heat Is it continuous, cyclic or intermittent? Does the temperature of the waste stream vary over time?
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 What is the composition of the waste stream? Are there contaminants that may corrode or erode the TA-engine? What is the flow rate of the waste stream, and does it vary? There may be added complexity and cost for integrating the system controls with existing process controls. Space limitations and equipment configurations may make TA-engine systems difficult or impossible to site
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Plan until the final presentation

Thesis

Results

work done
Experiments and analysis work remaining

Theory

0%
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50%

100%
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To do until the final presentation

Progress
Thesis

Results and analysis

Progress Experiments

Theory

0%
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20%

40%

60%

80%

100%
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 To achieve this goal I am studying to make such changes in design which are the key factors to efficiency e.g., The first and the most important thing is to decrease the value of onset temperature to reach quickly.

To reach to the onset temperature quickly we will surely increase the number of stages but again the problem will be the complexity of the design.
We have also another option to use another gas e.g., Helium to overcome this problem but that will require other configurations and devices like gas tank etc.

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 The other option may be to pressurize the air inside the resonator tube so that the oscillations take place quickly to reach the onset temperature soon but it will also be difficult to overcome the leakages. An option to overcome the same problem is to make some positive changes in the regenerator design or size or position. Similarly we can also observe some positive changes by increasing or decreasing the number of heat exchangers or the position of heat exchangers. The second option to improve the efficiency is to overcome the losses. So there are many factors which cause losses for example the length or size of the resonator tube, the geometry of the resonator tube, the effectiveness of the heat exchangers and other such factors which needs to be controlled. The erectness of the engine may also add the efficiency somehow.
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