Full-scale numerical simulations of standing-wave thermoacoustic engines with circular-pore and pin-array stacks

Abstract

Thermoacoustic engines (TAEs) can convert thermal energy into acoustic energy with no moving parts. Previous numerical studies normally focused on the TAEs with a parallel-plate stack due to their simple structures and used two-dimensional (2-D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to save computational costs. In this study, we conduct full-scale three-dimensional (3-D) CFD simulations on the standing-wave TAEs with more complicated circular-pore and pin-array stacks. Firstly, the dynamic behavior of the standing-wave TAEs in the start-up process is investigated. It is found that the optimal ratios of hydraulic radius rh to thermal penetration depth δk for the TAEs with circular-pore and pin-array stacks are 2 and 3.2, respectively. Secondly, the acoustic, hydrodynamic, and thermodynamic characteristics of the standing-wave TAEs in the steady-state process are explored. We find that when operating at optimal rh/δk, the TAE with a pin-array stack generates much larger acoustic power than that with a circular-pore stack. Examination of the vortex shedding at the stack ends indicates that the pin arrays exhibit less flow resistance than circular pores. At optimal rh/δk, the time-averaged transversal heat flux at the pin array ends is calculated to be around 1.2 × 105 W/m2, which is larger than 7.5 × 104 W/m2 of circular pores, corresponding to a better thermodynamic performance. The 3-D numerical investigations in this work give deeper insights into the performances of TAEs with circular-pore and pin-array stacks which were investigated in experiments, providing useful guidance for the future design and development of more sophisticated thermoacoustic devices for low-grade heat recovery.