Thermoacoustic Engine and Refrigerator

Student: Subhan Ullah

Student ID: M135117
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Table of contents
Introduction
Simple TA-engine(Prime mover) and TA-
Refrigerator(Heat pump)
Objective
Previous research
Main components
Assembly/Configuration
Advantages of TA-devices

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Introduction
(Thermo-acoustic engine)
Thermal
(heat energy)
Acoustic
(sound energy)
Other forms of
energy (electric or
mechanical etc.)
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Note: Thermo-acoustic Refrigerators principle is
same and opposite to TA-Engine

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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Simple TA-engine(Prime mover) and
TA-Refrigerator(Heat pump)


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Objective
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
To solve this problem, a multistage loop type
thermoacoustic engine has been proposed
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Previous research

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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Model of a simple TA-Engine
Main components
Thermoacoustic engines
main components
Regenerators
(made of porous
material)
Heat
exchangers
(hot and cold)
Resonator
tube
Data
recording
devices
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Heat exchanger Ceramic re-generator
Resonance tube
Data recording devices
(Other devices are Heaters, Thermocouples,
Sensors Multimeters etc.)
Stack/Re-generator

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Assembly/Configuration

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Advantages of TA-devices
Mechanical it is very simple
No moving parts, therefore no lubrication is
needed and the maintenance cost is also
reduced
Environment friendly (no toxic gases)
Low cost


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Peclet number
The Peclet number is a dimensionless number
used in calculations involving convective heat
transfer.
It is the ratio of the thermal energy convected to
the fluid to the thermal energy conducted within
the fluid.
The Peclet number is the product of the
Reynolds number and the Prandtl number.
It depends on the heat capacity, density, velocity,
characteristic length and heat transfer coefficient.

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