Design and analysis of acoustically-driven 50 W thermoacoustic refrigerators

Abstract

The design of loudspeaker-driven 50 W cooling power thermoacoustic refrigerators operating with helium at 3% drive-ratio and 10 bar pressure for a temperature difference of 75 K using the linear thermoacoustic theory is discussed. The dimensional normalization technique to minimize the number of parameters involved in the design process is discussed. The variation in the performance of the spiral stack-heat exchangers’ at 75% porosity as a function of the normalized stack length and center position is discussed. The resonator optimization is discussed, and the optimized one-third-wavelength (tapered, small diameter tube and divergent section with hemispherical end), and one-fourth-wavelength (tapered and divergent section with hemispherical end) resonator designs show 41.3% and 30.8% improvements in the power density compared to the published 10 W designs, respectively. The back volume gas spring system for improving the performance of the loudspeaker is discussed. The one-third-wavelength and one-fourth-wavelength resonator designs are validated using the DeltaEC software, which predicts the cold heat exchanger temperature of − 3.4 °C at 0.882 COP, and − 4.3 °C at 0.841 COP, respectively.