The influence of thermoacoustic regenerator on a traveling-wave acoustic field

Abstract

Thermoacoustic device can realize conversion between the heat energy and acoustic energy. Regenerator is the core of a thermoacoustic engine or refrigerator, which consists of smooth or tortuous porous media, such as parallel plates or stainless stacked-screen. Due to regenerators, the practical acoustic field is neither a pure standing wave nor a pure travelling wave. In fact, the position, structural parameters of the regenerator and temperature gradient between heat exchangers will strongly influence the oscillating pressure and velocity distribution in the acoustic field, which will bring about different performance for a practical thermoacoustic engine or refrigerator. In this paper, based on linear thermoacoustic theory, a mathematical model of a 1/2 wave-length duct with a regenerator driven by speakers will be built and the influence of the regenerator on the acoustic field distribution will be simulated and analyzed. This research is helpful for comprehensively understanding coupling mechanism between the acoustic field and the regenerator. The work was supported by the National natural science foundation of China (Grant no. 10904154).