Simulation and experimental improvement on a small-scale Stirling thermo-acoustic engine

Abstract

Compared with the traditional engines, the thermo-acoustic engines are relatively new and can act as the linear compressors for refrigerators. Many institutes have shown great interest in this kind of machine for its absence of moving mechanical part. In this paper, the influence of the dimensions of the main parts of the small-scale Stirling thermo-acoustic engine was numerically simulated using a computer code called DeltaEC. The resonator and the resonator cavity were found to be the most convenient and effective in improving the performance of the engine. Based on the numerical simulation, a small-scale Stirling thermo-acoustic engine were constructed and experimentally investigated. Currently, with a resonator length of only 1 m, the working frequency of the engine was decreased to 90 Hz and the onset temperature difference was decreased to 198.2 K.

Keywords

thermo-acoustic Stirling engine / small-scale / simulation / experiment

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the Science and Technology Research Project of Shanghai (No. 06PJ14052) and the Program for Distinguished Young Scholars of the Ministry of Education (NCET-07-0544). The authors would also like to acknowledge the support from the software of DeltaEC.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg