Thermodynamic analysis of a thermoacoustic travelling wave engine

Abstract

Thermoacoustics has become a promising technology to use heat from low temperature sources to drive engines. This study proposes a single-stage thermoacoustic travelling-wave engine for waste-heat recovery at 150°C. All the construction details of such a system are provided. A recently developed configuration of a looped tube with an impedance matching sidebranch stub is proposed. A numerical model of the engine is built in DeltaEC software to conduct the simulations. Furthermore, a detailed thermodynamic analysis of the engine is presented, including an energy balance, a description of the basic acoustic parameters in a steady state, as well as a study of a variable load influence on the performance of the engine. The Authors pointed out the necessity of the engine optimization and a proper choice of load related acoustic impedance, which would consider a trade-off between high power and high efficiency. Eventually, a possibility of achieving 40% exergy efficiency of the proposed engine is confirmed.

Archives of Acoustics

“…In order for the thermoacoustic engine to work according to the Stirling thermodynamic cycle, it is necessary to meet the propagation conditions of the travelling wave. One of the solutions is to construct a waveguide of a thermoacoustic engine as a looped tube (Ruziewicz et al, 2018). The length of the waveguide is then equal to the wavelength generated by the device (Fig.…”