Seminar Report 2020-21 Thermo Acoustic Refrigeration

ABSTRACT

Thermo acoustic have been known for over years but the use of this phenomenon
to develop engines and pumps is fairly recent. Thermo acoustic refrigeration is one such
phenomenon that uses high intensity sound waves in a pressurized gas tube to pump heat
from one place to other to produce refrigeration effect. In this type of refrigeration all
sorts of conventional refrigerants are eliminated and sound waves take their place. All we
need is a loud speaker and an acoustically insulated tube. Also this system completely
eliminates the need for lubricants and results in 40% less energy consumption. Thermo
acoustic heat engines have the advantage of operating with inert gases and with little or no
moving parts, making them highly efficient ideal candidate for environmentally-safe
refrigeration with almost zero maintenance cost. Now we will look into a thermo acoustic
refrigerator, its principle and functions .

Key Words: - Thermo-Acoustics, Piezo-Electric effect, Drivers, Working Fluid, Thermal

Acoustic Effect

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i
ABSTRACT ii
CONTENT iii
LIST OF FIGURE v
LIST OF CHART vi

CHAPTER PAGE
TITLE
NO NO
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 HISTORICAL APPLICATIONS 1
1.1.1 Ice Harvesting 1
1.1.2 First refrigeration systems 2
1.1.3 Dunedin, the first commercially successful refrigerated
3
ship.
2 BASIC FUNCTIONING 5
3 THERMO ACOUSTIC EFFECT 6
4 WORKING 7
5 FUTURESCOPE 12
6 APPLICATIONS 13
6.1 Liquefaction of natural gas 14
6.2 Chip cooling 14
6.3 Electronic equipment cooling on naval ships 14
6.4 Electricity from sunlight 14
6.5 Cogeneration (combined heat and power) 14
6.6 Upgrading industrial waste heat 14
7 BENEFITS 16
7.1 Inert working fluid 16
7.2 No sliding seals or lubrication 16
7.3 Very few simple components 16

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7.4 Immaturity 16
8 DRAWBACKS 17
8.1 Immaturity 17
8.2 Efficiency 17
8.3 Power Density 17
8.4 Electro acoustic conversion 18
8.5 Secondary heat transfer 18
8.6 The "talent bottleneck” 18
9 CONCLUSION 19
REFERENCES 20

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LIST OF FIGURE

FIGURE PAGE
TITLE
NO NO
4.1 Functioning of a TA Refrigerator 8
4.2 A Space Thermo Acoustic Refrigerators 8
4.3 A Loud Speaker 9
4.4 A Resonator 9
2.5 The integrated table/gantry system 9
2.6 Floor-mounted cantilever system 9
3.1 Pure Water Cutting 10
4.1 A Typical Abrasive Jet Machining Center 12

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LIST OF CHART

CHART PAGE
TITLE
NO NO
Graphs of temperature ratio and coefficient of performance
1 10
against heat load

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades, physicists and engineers have been working on a class
of heat engines and compression-driven refrigerators that use no oscillating pistons, oil
seals or lubricants. These so called thermo acoustic devices take advantage of sound
waves reverberating within them to convert a temperature differential into mechanical
energy or mechanical energy into a temperature differential. Such materials thus can be
used, for example, to generate electricity or to provide refrigeration and air conditioning.
Because thermo acoustic devices perform best with inert gases as the working fluid, they
do not produce the harmful environmental effects such as global warming or stratospheric
ozone depletion that have been associated with the engineered refrigerants such as CFCs
and HFCs. Recent advances have boosted efficiencies to levels that rival what can be
obtained from internal combustion engines, suggesting that commercial thermo acoustic
devices may soon be a common place.

The entire features mentioned above is possible only because sound waves in
thermo acoustic engines and refrigerators can replace the piston and cranks that are
typically built into any machinery. These thermo acoustic devices produce or absorb
sound power, rather than the shaft power characteristic of rotating machinery making it
mechanically simple.

1.1 HISTORICAL APPLICATIONS

1.1.1 Ice Harvesting

The use of ice to refrigerate and thus preserve food goes back to prehistoric times.
Through the ages, the seasonal harvesting of snow and ice was a regular practice of most of the
ancient cultures: Chinese, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Persians. Ice and snow were stored in caves
or dugouts lined with straw or other insulating materials. The Persians stored ice in pits called
yakhchals. Rationing of the ice allowed the preservation of foods over the warm periods. This
practice worked well down through the centuries, with icehouses remaining in use into the
twentieth century.

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In the 16th century, the discovery of chemical refrigeration was one of the first steps
toward artificial means of refrigeration. Sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate, when added to water,
lowered the water temperature and created a sort of refrigeration bath for cooling substances. In
Italy, such a solution was used to chill wine and cakes. During the first half of the 19th century,
ice harvesting became big business in America. New Englander Frederic Tudor, who became
known as the "Ice King", worked on developing better insulation products for the long distance
shipment of ice, especially to the tropics.

1.1.2 First refrigeration systems

The first known method of artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by William Cullen at
the University of Glasgow in Scotland in 1756. Cullen used a pump to create a partial vacuum
over a container of diethyl ether, which then boiled, absorbing heat from the surrounding air. The
experiment even created a small amount of ice, but had no practical application at that time. In
1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, professor of chemistry at Cambridge University,
conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means to rapidly cool an
object. Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation of highly volatile liquids such as alcohol
and ether, could be used to drive down the temperature of an object past the freezing point of
water.

They conducted their experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object
and with a bellows used to "quicken" the evaporation; they lowered the temperature of the
thermometer bulb down to 7 °F (−14 °C) while the ambient temperature was 65 °F (18 °C).
Franklin noted that soon after they passed the freezing point of water (32 °F) a thin film of ice
formed on the surface of the thermometer's bulb and that the ice mass was about a quarter inch
thick when they stopped the experiment upon reaching 7 °F (−14 °C). Franklin concluded, "From
this experiment, one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day".

In 1805, American inventor Oliver Evans designed but never built a refrigeration system
based on the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle rather than chemical solutions or volatile
liquids such as ethyl ether. In 1820, the British scientist Michael Faraday liquefied ammonia and
other gases by using high pressures and low temperatures.

An American living in Great Britain, Jacob Perkins, obtained the first patent for a vapor-
compression refrigeration system in 1834. Perkins built a prototype system and it actually worked,
although it did not succeed commercially.

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In 1842, an American physician, John Gorrie, designed the first system for refrigerating
water to produce ice. He also conceived the idea of using his refrigeration system to cool the air
for comfort in homes and hospitals (i.e., air-conditioning). His system compressed air, then
partially cooled the hot compressed air with water before allowing it to expand while doing part of
the work required to drive the air compressor. That isentropic expansion cooled the air to a
temperature low enough to freeze water and produce ice, or to flow "through a pipe for effecting
refrigeration otherwise" as stated in his patent granted by the U.S. Patent Office in 1851. Gorrie
built a working prototype, but his system was a commercial failure.

Alexander Twining began experimenting with vapor-compression refrigeration in 1848

and obtained patents in 1850 and 1853. He is credited with having initiated commercial
refrigeration in the United States by 1856.

1.1.3 Dunedin, the first commercially successful refrigerated ship.

Meanwhile in Australia, James Harrison began operation of a mechanical ice-making

machine in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Victoria. His first
commercial ice-making machine followed in 1854 and his patent for an ether liquid-vapour
compression refrigeration system was granted in 1855. Harrison introduced commercial vapor-
compression refrigeration to breweries and meat packing houses, and by 1861 a dozen of his
systems were in operation.

Australian, Argentine, and American concerns experimented with refrigerated shipping in

the mid 1870s, the first commercial success coming when William Soltau Davidson fitted a
compression refrigeration unit to the New Zealand vessel Dunedin in 1882, leading to a meat and
dairy boom in Australasia and South America. J & E Hall of Dartford, England outfitted the 'SS
Selembria' with a vapor compression system bring 30,000 carcasses of mutton from the Falkland
Islands in 1886.

The first gas absorption refrigeration system using gaseous ammonia dissolved in water
(referred to as "aqua ammonia") was developed by Ferdinand Carré of France in 1859 and
patented in 1860. Due to the toxicity of ammonia, such systems were not developed for use in
homes, but were used to manufacture ice for sale. In the United States, the consumer public at that
time still used the ice box with ice brought in from commercial suppliers, many of whom were still
harvesting ice and storing it in an icehouse.

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Thaddeus Lowe, an American balloonist from the Civil War, had experimented over the
years with the properties of gases. One of his mainstay enterprises was the high-volume
production of hydrogen gas. He also held several patents on ice making machines. His
"Compression Ice Machine" would revolutionize the cold storage industry. In 1869 he and other
investors purchased an old steamship onto which they loaded one of Lowe‟s refrigeration units and
began shipping fresh fruit from New York to the Gulf Coast area, and fresh meat from Galveston,
Texas back to New York. Because of Lowe‟s lack of knowledge about shipping, the business was
a costly failure, and it was difficult for the public to get used to the idea of being able to consume
meat that had been so long out of the packing house. Domestic mechanical refrigerators became
available in the United States around 1911.

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CHAPTER 2

BASIC FUNCTIONING

In a nut shell, a thermo acoustic engine converts heat from a high-temperature

source into acoustic power while rejecting waste heat to a low temperature sink. A thermo
acoustic refrigerator does the opposite, using acoustic power to pump heat from a cool
source to a hot sink. These devices perform best when they employ noble gases as their
thermodynamic working fluids. Unlike the chemicals used in refrigeration over the years,
such gases are both nontoxic and environmentally benign. Another appealing feature of
thermo acoustics is that one can easily flange an engine onto a refrigerator, creating a heat
powered cooler with no moving parts at all.

The principle can be imagined as a loud speaker creating high amplitude sound
waves that can compress refrigerant allowing heat absorption. The researches have
exploited the fact that sound waves travel by compressing and expanding the gas they are
generated in. Suppose that the above said wave is traveling through a tube. Now, a
temperature gradient can be generated by putting a stack of plates in the right place in the
tube, in which sound waves are bouncing around. Some plates in the stack will get hotter
while the others get colder. All it takes to make a refrigerator out of this is to attach heat
exchangers to the end of these stacks.

It is interesting to note that humans feel pain when they hear sound above 120
decibels, while in this system sound may reach amplitudes of 173 decibels. But even if the
fridge is to crack open, the sound will not be escaping to outside environment, since this
intense noise can only be generated inside the pressurized gas locked inside the cooling
system. It is worth noting that, prototypes of the technology has been built and one has
even flown inside a space shuttle.

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CHAPTER 3

THERMO ACOUSTIC EFFECT

Acoustic or sound waves can be utilized to produce cooling. The pressure

variations in the acoustic wave are accompanied by temperature variations due to
compressions and expansions of the gas. For a single medium, the average temperature at
a certain location does not change. When a second medium is present in the form of a
solid wall, heat is exchanged with the wall. An expanded gas parcel will take heat from
the wall, while a compressed parcel will reject heat to the wall.

As expansion and compression in an acoustic wave are inherently associated with

a displacement, a net transport of heat results. To fix the direction of heat flow, a standing
wave pattern is generated in an acoustic resonator. The reverse effect also exists: when a
large enough temperature gradient is imposed to the wall, net heat is absorbed and an
acoustic wave is generated, so that heat is converted to work.

The principle may find applications in practical refrigerators, providing cooling,

heat engines providing heat or power generators providing work. A great advantage of the
technique is that there are no or only one moving part, in the cold area, which results in
high reliability and low vibration levels. Also the use of inert gases make them
environmentally safe and hence more in demand.

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CHAPTER 4

WORKING

Thermo acoustic refrigerators now under development use sound waves strong
enough to make your hair catch fire, says inventor Steven L Garrett. But this noise is
safely contained in a pressurized tube. If the tube gets shattered, the noise would instantly
dissipate to harmless levels. Because it conducts heat, such intense acoustic power is a
clean, dependable replacement for cooling systems that use ozone destroying
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Now a scientist Hofler is also developing super cold
cryocoolers capable of temperatures as low as -135˚F (180˚K). he hopes to achieve -243˚F
(120˚K) because such cryogenic temperatures would keep electronic components cool in
space or speed the function of new microprocessors.

The interaction between heat and sound has been underestimated even by Sir Isaac
Newton. This became clear, when Laplace corrected Newton‟s earlier calculation of the
speed of sound in air. Newton had assumed the expansions and compressions of a sound
wave in a gas happen without affecting the temperature. Laplace accounted for slight
variations in temperature that in fact take place, and by doing so he derived the correct
speed of sound in air, a value that is 18% faster than Newton‟s estimate.

A thermo acoustic refrigerator functions as follows. First, customized loudspeakers

are attached to cylindrical chambers filled with inert, pressurized gases such as xenon and
helium. At the opposite end of the tubes are tightly wound "jelly rolls" made of plastic
film glued to ordinary fishing line. When the loudspeakers blast sound at 180 decibels, an
acoustic wave resonates in the chambers. As gas molecules begin dancing frantically in
response to the sound, they are compressed and heated, with temperatures reaching a peak
at the thickest point of the acoustic wave. That's where the super hot gas molecules crash
into the plastic rolls.

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After transferring their heat to the stack, the sound wave causes the molecules to
expand and cool. "Each one of these oscillating molecules acts as a member of a 'bucket
brigade,' carrying heat toward the source of the sound," says Garrett. Cold temperatures
can then be tapped for chilling refrigerators, bedrooms, cars, or electronic components on
satellites and inside computers, according to Garrett. Someday, he says, turning up the air-
conditioner could be accomplished by adjusting a volume-control knob.

Fig 4.1 Functioning of a TA Refrigerator

The Space Thermo Acoustic Refrigerator was the first electrically-driven thermo
acoustic chiller designed to operate autonomously outside a laboratory. It was launched on
the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-42) on January 22, 1992. The design was an extension
of the first thermo acoustic refrigerator built at Los Alamos National Laboratory as the
Ph.D. thesis project of Thomas J. Hofler. Dr. Hofler is currently a member of the physics
faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.

Fig 4.2 A Space Thermo Acoustic Refrigerators

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The refrigerator is driven by a modified compression driver that is coupled to a

quarter-wavelength resonator using a single-convolution electroformed metal bellow. The
resonator contains the heat exchangers and the stack. The stack is 3.8 cm in diameter and
7.9 cm in length. It was constructed by rolling up polyester film (Mylar™) using fishing
line as spaces placed every 5 mm. The device was filled with a 97.2% Helium and 2.7%
Xenon gas mixture at a pressure of 10. The major parts of a thermo acoustic refrigerator
are loud speakers and resonators. Pictorical representations of both are given below.

Fig 4.3 A Loud Speaker

Fig 4.4 A Resonator

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In contrast, inside conventional refrigerators and air conditioners, CFC gas is

compressed and heated by an electrically driven pump, then cooled and condensed by a
heat exchanger in a process known as a "Rankine cycle." When the liquefied gas is
depressurized, it evaporates and drops to a much cooler temperature. Moving through the
freezer coils of a food compartment, the cold fluid picks up heat, starting the cycle all over
again.

Before World War II, ammonia and sulfur dioxide were commonly used in
refrigerators, explains Gregory W. Swift, a thermo acoustics expert at Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico. But these substances were soon replaced with CFCs,
which are noncorrosive, nonflammable, and relatively nontoxic, Swift says.
Unfortunately, he adds, CFCs leak from cooling systems, destroying the atmospheric
ozone that protects the earth's surface from ultraviolet radiation. Damage to the ozone
shield may result in adverse human health effects including cancers, cataracts, immune
system deficits, and respiratory effects, as well as diminish food supplies and promote
increases in vector borne diseases.

Chart 1 Graphs of temperature ratio and coefficient of performance against heat load

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In a thermo acoustic refrigerator there are two major factors for heat transfer.
They are mentioned below:

Temp gradient(T/x)

The temperature gradient is measured as

∆T/x = P / ρξCp

Where p is the acoustic pressure,

ξ is the displacement amplitude,

ρ is the density and Cp is the specific heat/unit mass.

Thermal penetration length (ζ )

The thermal penetration length is the distance heat can diffuse through a gas in a time t
seconds.

ζ = k t / ρ Cp.

Where k is the thermal conductivity,

ρ is the density and
Cp is the specific heat/unit mass.

Depending on the thermal penetration depth the distance between the stack plates
is varied. If the distance is very large heat transfer will be minimum or if the distance is
too small the gas will be unable to pass through the stack plates and moreover transfer of
heat to plates will be difficult. So the stack of plates should be kept at proper distances
apart. Moreover the acoustic pressure determines the temperature gradient setup. So a
resonator is a must in a thermo acoustic refrigerator.

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CHAPTER 5

FUTURESCOPE

Although the working principle of thermo acoustic technology is quite complex,

the practical implementation is relatively simple. This offers great advantages with respect
to the economic feasibility of this technology. Other advantages are

1. No moving parts for the process, so very reliable and a long life span.
2. Environmentally friendly working medium (air, noble gas)
3. The use of air or noble gas as working medium offers a large window of
applications because there are no phase transitions.
4. Use of simple materials with no special requirements, which are commercially
available in large quantities and therefore relatively cheap.
5. On the same technology base a large variety of applications can be covered.

Out of these, the two distinct advantages of thermo acoustic refrigeration are that the
harmful refrigerant gases are removed. The second advantage is that the number of
moving parts is decreased dramatically by removing the compressor. It also has fewer
moving parts than its competitors, and so is less likely to break down. Also sonic
compression or „sound wave refrigeration‟ uses sound to compress refrigerants which
replace the traditional compressor and need for lubricants. The technology could represent
a major breakthrough using a variety of refrigerants, and save up to 40% in energy. The
system is also an energy saving drop in current compressors, and projected mass
production cost is very low.

The planned system uses sound waves to compress inert Helium gas and extract heat.
The system is potentially much more energy efficient in all applications, as well as non-
ozone depleting and having no global warming potential.Thermo acoustic refrigeration works
best with inert gases such as helium and argon, which are harmless, non flammable, non toxic, non
ozone depleting or global warming and is judged inexpensive to manufacture.

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CHAPTER 6

APPLICATIONS

Speaking of its practical applicability, prototype of thermo acoustic refrigerators

have operated on the Space Shuttle and abroad a Navy warship. And a powerful thermo
acoustic engine has recently demonstrated its ability to liquefy natural gas on a
commercial scale.The applications of thermo acoustic engines fall into two categories
which depend upon whether the refrigerator is powered by electricity or by heat. Although
the heat driven thermo acoustic refrigerators and cryocoolers are attractive for applications
where there is abundant heat or waste heat, at the present time, only two thermo
acoustically driven refrigerators have been demonstrated. The first was a "beer cooler" and
the second was a thermo acoustically driven orifice-pulse-tube cryocooler designated the
"Coolahoop"[lll. A more compact commercial version of the Coolahoop is now under
development for cooling of high speed electronics.

Several other heat-driven thermo acoustic refrigerators are currently in the design
stages for the above applications including a refrigerator for storage of medical supplies
and vaccines in Bangladesh, a solar driven refrigerated cargo container for transportation
of tropical fruits, and a natural gas liquefaction plant. Work on electrically powered
thermo acoustic refrigeration has, until last year, been concentrated on laboratory
experiments and spacecraft applications.

At the present time, Ford Motor Company is developing thermo acoustic

refrigerators for proprietary applications. NPS is currently developing two refrigerators.
One is a third-generation, single-stage thermo acoustic cryocooler (TAR-3) which is
designed to reach high-T, superconductor transition temperatures. The other is TALSR,
which is capable of producing cooling comparable to commercial domestic
refrigerator/freezers. TALSR was also designed for use on-board the Space ShuttleI81.
The first commercial application of a TALSR-like design, which will use a less expensive
driver, will be targeted to a %iche" market which we are unwilling to disclose at this time.

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6.1 Liquefaction of natural gas

Burning natural gas in a thermo acoustic engine generates acoustic energy. This
acoustic energy is used in a thermo acoustic heat pump to liquefy natural gas.

6.2 Chip cooling

In this case a piezoelectric element generates the sound wave. A thermo acoustic
heat pump cools the chip.

6.3 Electronic equipment cooling on naval ships

In this application, a speaker generates sound waves. Again a thermo acoustic

pump is used to provide the cooling.

6.4 Electricity from sunlight

Concentrated thermal solar energy generates an acoustic wave in a heated thermo

acoustic engine. A linear motor generates electricity from this.

6.5 Cogeneration (combined heat and power)

A burner heats a thermo acoustic engine, therewith generating acoustic energy. A

linear motor converts this energy to electricity. Waste heat of burner (flue gases) can be
used to supply heat.

6.6 Upgrading industrial waste heat

Acoustic energy is created by means of industrial waste heat in a thermo acoustic

engine. In a thermo acoustic heat pump this acoustic energy is used to upgrade the same
waste heat to a useful temperature level.

Though it probably won‟t be useful for car air conditioning systems any time
soon since they are too bulky and heavy, it may prove useful for “niche applications”,
such as cooling satellite sensors or super fast computers. In addition to being useful on
shipboard, this technology could be adapted for soft drink machines, medicine storage,
computer chips and food transport companies.

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Chilled water from the refrigerator circulated through racks of radar electronics on the
USS Deyo, a Navy destroyer. Although we can improve the performance substantially
with some modest changes, thermo acoustic refrigerators of this type will always have an
intrinsic limit to their efficiency.

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CHAPTER 7
BENEFITS

7.1 Inert working fluid

Helium, being an inert gas, cannot participate in chemical re actions and hence
no toxicity, flammability, or negative environmental effects (ODP=GWP=O).

7.2 No sliding seals or lubrication

Due to the high frequency operation, high powers can be achieved with small
displacements so no sliding seals or gas bearings are required. This also means that no
"tight tolerance" machined parts are required thereby reducing manufacturing costs.

7.3 Very few simple components

Electrically driven systems require only one moving part and thermally driven
systems have no moving parts. The "stack" can be fabricated from cheap plastics. 3.4
Large range of working temperatures. Depending upon the position and length of the stack
in the acoustic standing wave field, one can trade off the temperature span and the heat
pumping power. Different working fluids are therefore not required for different
temperature ranges.

7.3 Intrinsically suited to proportional control

Just as one is able to control the volume of a stereo system, a electrically driven
thermo acoustic refrigerator's cooling power is continuously variable. This allows
improved overall efficiency by doing rapid cool-down at a lower COP and then
maintaining heat leak losses at higher COP. This "load matching" can also reduce heat
exchanger inefficiencies by minimizing temperature differences within the fluids and
exchangers.

7.4 Immaturity

Thermo acoustics is the youngest of the heat engine cycles. It is more likely that
important breakthroughs which substantially improve performance and manufacturability
will still occur here rather than the older technologies which have already "skimmed the
cream

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CHAPTER 8

DRAWBACKS

8.1 Immaturity

Because thermo acoustics is the youngest of existing heat engine cycles, it lacks
the infrastructure (suppliers, sales and service base, educational programs, etc.) which can
enhance marketability. In addition, since there are presently no commercial products on
the market, thermo acoustics does not have a "cash flow" which can be "tapped" to make
either incremental component improvements or to finance general research and
development efforts.

8.2 Efficiency

Although computer models[121 of TALSR predict that it will have a Coefficient

of-Performance Relative to Carnot (COPR) of 42% (exclusive of motor inefficiencies and
secondary heat exchange fluid pumps), TALSR has not yet been tested. The previous
thermo acoustic cryocooler designs have been optimized for temperature span rather than
COP. Their best measured performance has given a COPR I20%, again exclusive of
electro acoustic efficiency.

8.3 Power Density

The simple boundary layer models of thermo acoustic engine performance [d121
may not apply as acoustical amplitudes are increased. If acoustic mach numbers are
restricted to Ma&%, then the realizable power density of conventional thermo acoustic
stack geometries may be restricted to 10 Tons (35 kW) per square meter of stack cross-
sectional area at working fluid pressures below 20 atm. Higher power research
refrigerators and numerical hydrodynamic computer simulations would be very useful to
determine what would ultimately limit the power density.

8.4 Electro acoustic conversion

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Although electrical to acoustical conversion efficiencies on the order of 90% are,

in principle, realizable at reasonable cost, present thermo acoustic drivers have had electro
acoustic efficiencies under 50%. This should not be a problem since efficiencies for
similar linear motor technology in Sterling applications as high as 93% have been
measured.

8.5 Secondary heat transfer

All thermo acoustic engines produced thus far have used either conduction for
small heat loads (IO0 Watts). Unlike the vapor compression (Rankine) cycles, the working
fluid in a thermo acoustic refrigerator/chiller is not circulated outside the engine. In order
to obtain maximum overall efficiency (Le., net COP), it is therefore necessary to
simultaneously optimize primary and secondary heat exchanger geometry, transfer fluid
thermophysical parameters, transfer fluid flow rates, and electrical pump or heat pipe
performance, all subject to economic constraints, in order to achieve the best performance
at the lowest cost.

8.6 The "talent bottleneck”

Because thermo acoustics is a new science and requires expertise in a diverse

number of non-traditional disciplines within the refrigeration and HVAC communities
(acoustics, transduction, gas mixture thermo physics, PID, PLL and AGC control, etc.),
there are very few experimentalists who are interested or capable of research in this field.
This severely limits the number of potentially promising applications which can be
pursued simultaneously

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CHAPTER 9

CONCLUSION

Thermo acoustic engines and refrigerators were already being considered a few
years ago for specialized applications, where their simplicity, lack of lubrication and
sliding seals, and their use of environmentally harmless working fluids were adequate
compensation for their lower efficiencies. This latest breakthrough, coupled with other
developments in the design of high power, single frequency loud speakers and
reciprocating electric generators suggests that thermo acoustics may soon emerge as an
environmentally attractive way to power hybrid electric vehicles, capture solar energy,
refrigerate food, air condition buildings, liquefy industrial gases and serve in other
capacities that are yet to be imagined. In future let us hope these thermo acoustic devices
which promise to improve everyone‟s standard of living while helping to protect the
planet might soon take over other costly, less durable and polluting engines and pumps.
The latest achievements of the former are certainly encouraging, but there are still much
left to be done.

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REFERENCES

1. J. C. Wheatley, T. Hofler, G. W. Swift and A. Migliori, Experiments with an

Intrinsically Irreversible Acoustic Heat Engine, Physical Review Letters 50 (7),
499 (1983)
2. T. J. Hofler, Thermoacoustic refrigerator design and performance, Ph.D.
dissertation, Physics Department, University of California at San Diego, (1986)
3. The Pennsylvania State University, Graduate Program in Acoustics, thermo
acoustics
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