Abstract
This article proposes a numerical analysis for performance improvement of the stack, which represents a crucial element on the solar-powered thermoacoustic refrigerator. The stack is considered as a saturated parallelepiped homogeneous porous media. Numerical simulation of the flow and the heat transfer in the thermoacoustic refrigerator is carried out. The physical flow is governed by the modified Darcy–Brinkmann–Forchheimer model. The governing equations are solved numerically using the lattice Boltzmann method. Furthermore, the local thermal equilibrium assumption is applied to examine heat transfer. Particular attention is paid a new form of the lattice Boltzmann equation system describing the flow and the heat transfer in porous media and fluid regions. The effects of several parameters characterizing the thermal behaviour in the porous medium are studied. The parametric results lead to the optimization of the porous media form. The presence of the viscous dissipation term in the heat transfer formulation within the thermoacoustic system is particularly highlighted, due to its significant effects introduced by the Eckert number.
Highlights
Throughout the last decades, researchers have tried to turn all the systems towards green energy, in order to become environmentally friendly.[1,2,3,4,5,6] Because of high energy consumption of conventional refrigerator, the exploitation of renewable energy is an appropriate solution to increase the overall efficiency
The operating gas used in thermoacoustic systems is either binary mixtures of rare gases that are harmless to the environment,[9] or sometimes, the ambient air itself thanks to its low cost and availability
We developed a mathematical model of the fluid motion and the heat transfer in three parts of the solar-powered thermoacoustic refrigerator (TAR)
Summary
Throughout the last decades, researchers have tried to turn all the systems towards green energy, in order to become environmentally friendly.[1,2,3,4,5,6] Because of high energy consumption of conventional refrigerator, the exploitation of renewable energy is an appropriate solution to increase the overall efficiency. The thermoacoustic refrigerator (TAR) is proposed[7] (known as the thermoacoustic cooler or the thermoacoustic heat pump), as one of the recent advances in the field. The operating principle of the TAR is to convert acoustic energy into a temperature difference.[8] Generally, the operating gas used in thermoacoustic systems is either binary mixtures of rare gases that are harmless to the environment,[9] or sometimes, the ambient air itself thanks to its low cost and availability. In 1777, Byron Higgins was the first scientist who observed the thermoacoustic effect.[9] he noticed that the heat may induce acoustic oscillation (sound). The inverse physical phenomenon, which is the creation of a temperature gradient from an intense acoustic wave, was demonstrated in the work of Merkli
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