Technical Note. Influence of Material Used for the Regenerator on the Properties of a Thermoacoustic Heat Pump

Abstract

Research in termoacoustics began with the observation of the heat transfer between gas and solids. Using this interaction the intense sound wave could be applied to create engines and heat pumps. The most important part of thermoacoustic devices is a regenerator, where press of conversion of sound energy into thermal or vice versa takes place. In a heat pump the acoustic wave produces the temperature difference at the two ends of the regenerator. The aim of the paper is to find the influence of the material used for the construction of a regenerator on the properties of a thermoacoustic heat pump. Modern technologies allow us to create new materials with physical properties necessary to increase the temperature gradient on the heat exchangers. The aim of this paper is to create a regenerator which strongly improves the efficiency of the heat pump.

Archives of Acoustics

“…High efficiency of these devices results in more attention given to them and a big emphasis given to their development (Ruziewicz, Lamperski, 2015; Ruziewicz, Zimnowłodzki, 2014). The researcher, who discovered that travelling waves were more suitable in thermoacoustic processes because of their efficiency, was Peter Ceperley (Ceperley, 1979;Kruk, 2013). In thermoacoustic devices with a travelling wave gas, during the passage of the wave through the regenerator undergoes a cycle of isothermal compression, isochoric heating, isothermal expansion and finally isochoric cooling, analogous to the cycles occurring in a conventional Stirling engine.…”