Numerical analysis of thermoacoustically driven thermoacoustic refrigerator with a stack of parallel plates having corrugated surfaces

Abstract

Most numerical research on thermoacoustic devices with a stack made of parallel plates has considered a rectangular form for the plate. However, a variety of plate shapes can improve the heat transfer and performance of the stack. In this paper, a 2D numerical model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is used to examine the efficiency of thermoacoustic couples using a diversity of plate surfaces. For this investigation, flat plates and others profiles with corrugated surfaces (rounded and triangular surfaces) were tested to compare their performances and the effect of plate form on thermoacoustic systems. The efficiency of the thermoacoustic engine (TAE) is measured in terms of the generated acoustic pressure and the performance of the thermoacoustic refrigerator (TAR) is considered in terms of the temperature gradient along the refrigeration stack. The results showed that plates profile with irregular surfaces improves the generated acoustic pressure due to the increase of the stack porosity known as the blockage ratio (BR). The triangular shape performed better with a 10% gain than using a flat plate, followed by rounded ripples with a 5.2% increase in pressure amplitude compared to flat surfaces. Unlike in TAR, it was revealed that the stack made of flatform could produce a higher temperature difference (∆T) among the refrigeration stack extremities. By using rounded ripples, ∆T undergoes a reduction up to 52%, and 65% if using triangular ripples compared to flatform. From this investigation, it is observed that the stack with corrugated plates is the most suitable for TAE; however, the flat plates generate a higher temperature difference in TAR.