Thermoacoustic engine and refrigerator
Research members： Dr. Yuki Ueda, Dr. Fukushima Akinori
Research fields： Mechanical engineering, Applied physics, Physics
Departments： Institute of Engineering
Keywords： thermodynamics, thermoacoustics, nonlinear acoustics
Web site：
Summary
When an acoustic wave propagates in a tube, the pressure, temperature, and specific volume of gas in the tube oscillate. These oscillations are essentially equal to the thermodynamic state-quantity oscillations caused by a piston in a gas-filled cylinder. Hence, we can construct engine and refrigerator driven by acoustic waves. Devices utilizing acoustic waves are called thermoacoustic engines and heat pumps. They have simple structures, and their efficiencies exceed the efficiency of conventional car engine and home refrigerators. Furthermore, thermoacoustic engines can use many kinds of heat sources such as sunlight and waste heat, and thermoacoustic heat pumps use nitrogen, helium, or argon gas instead of hydrochlorofluorocarbons as a working medium. These advantages motivate us to investigate thermoacoustic engines and heat pumps.
Reference articles and patents
1 D. Noda and Y. Ueda“A thermoacoustic oscillator powered by vaporized water and ethanol” American Journal of Physics 80 124-126 (2013)
2 K. Nakamura and Y. Ueda“Design and construction of a standing-wave thermoacoustic engine working with heat sources having a given temperature ratio”J. Thermal Science and Technology 6 (3) 416-423 (2011)
3 B. M. Mehdi, Y. Ueda, A. Akisawa“Design and construction of a traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator”Int. J. Refrigeration 34 1125-1131 (2011)
4 Y. Ueda, B. M. Mehdi, K. Tsuji, A. Akisawa “Optimization of the regenerator of a traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator”J. Appl. Phys. 107(3), 034901_1-5 (2010)
5 Y. Ueda, T. Kato, and C. Kato“Experimental evaluation of the acoustic properties of stacked-screen regenerators” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125, 780-786 (2009)
Contact
University Research Administration Center(URAC),
Tokyo University of Agriculture andTechnology
urac[at]ml.tuat.ac.jp
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