Computational analysis on the influence of design parameters and ambient conditions on performance of single stage traveling wave thermoacoustic generator

Abstract

The demand for clean and sustainable energy, energy conservation and recovery has increased with the growth of population and adverse impacts on the environment caused by using conventional energy sources. By transforming waste heat into sound, thermoacoustic technology is utilized to recover energy. Around the world, more study is being done in this area. Out of the two technologies used for thermoacoustic energy conversion, use of traveling waves was found to be more efficient than using standing waves. However still, the correlations between energy conversion efficiency and the design parameters need to be established by simulation as well as experiments. Here, a single stage traveling wave thermoacoustic generator was considered using an existing computational model. The influence of the ambient temperature and the length of the regenerator on the energy conversion efficiency was investigated. According to the results, the efficiency of the device increases with increasing ambient temperature for a constant regenerator length, while for a given ambient temperature the efficiency increased with the increasing regenerator length. There is a limit to this rise of efficiency with the regenerator length and after which, the acoustic behavior appears to be nonexistent. Further studies on this are being carried out.