Abstract
Resonance tubes are often used to connect multi-stage looped thermoacoustic heat engine and linear alternators to form a multi-stage looped thermoacoustic electric generator. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the performance of a multi-stage looped thermoacoustic electric generator with two sets of resonance tubes of different lengths. With the increase of the length of resonance tubes from 1.5 m to 2 m, the system frequency decreases from 70 Hz to 62 Hz. The maximum output acoustic power increases from 6.97 kW to 8.16 kW, and the maximum output electric power increases from 5.09 kW to 6.24 kW. Meanwhile, the maximum thermoacoustic efficiency increases from 23.08% to 23.94%, the maximum acoustic-to-electric efficiency increases from 78.03% to 82.06% and the maximum thermal-to-electric efficiency increases from 17.79% to 19.64%. Numerical simulation is also conducted based on a 3-step coupling method and validates the experimental results. This study demonstrates that adjusting the length of resonance tubes in a multi-stage looped thermoacoustic electric generator is an effective way to tune the frequency as well as to improve the coupling between the multi-stage looped thermoacoustic heat engine and linear alternators.
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