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The American University in Cairo

School of Science and Engineering
MENG 573


Standing Wave
Thermoacoustic Engine

By
Moamen Bellah Abdou SID# 800120733

Submitted to
Dr. Sherine El-Baradie




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The purpose of the current work is to design, build, operate and test a standing-wave thermoacoustic
engine. This report summarizes the progress so far. The current work is described in two parts:
1- Characterize the performance of an existing thermoacoustic engine, through transient and steady-
state analysis
2- Design, manufacture, operate and test a thermoacoustic engine that takes into consideration all the
experience acquired during the operation and tests done on the existing thermoacoustic engine. The
new design aims to increase the resulting power and the conversion efficiency. The new system will
have modular design, and possibly will drive a linear alternator.
Part I of this report presents the measurements and analysis made on the existing thermoacoustic engine.
Part II describes the efforts made for the design and manufacture of the new one.
Part I: Measurements and analysis made on the existing thermoacoustic engine
Figure 1 shows a digital image of the existing thermoacoustic engine, with some of the auxiliariesas well
as the measuring instrumentation (thermocouples, pressure microphones, pressure gages) and the signal
conditioner of the pressure microphone and the data acquisition board for all signals.
Variac
Pressure/
vacuum
gages
Pressure
microphone
Inlet/exit
gas port
Hot-side
blind flange
Microphone
signal
conditioner
Data
acquisition
card
Oscilloscope
Vacuum
pump
Stack and
hot and cold
heat
exchangers
Resonator
Gas
cylinder
To cooling
water
circuit

Figure 1: A digital image of the thermoacoustic engine, showing some of the auxiliaries and the measuring
instruments

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The engine performance is studied in terms of transient and steady-state measurements and analysis.
The transient measurements are presented first, followed by the steady-state measurements.
Figures 2 and 3show the transient development of the developed dynamic pressure and of the hot and
cold stack temperatures at different axial points inside the engines resonator, respectively. Figures4 and 5
present the transient development of the temperature distribution inside the stack during startup (onset process)
and during shutdown (damping process), respectively. The transient analysis is useful to fully understand the
onset and damping processes because the heat source driving the engine (solar energy, waste heat, etc) must
have its temperature higher than the onset temperature required by the engine. It also helps to understand and
characterize some of the non-linearities involved.
Figure 2 below shows the temporal development of the developed dynamic pressure at 30.5, 46.5 cm, 88
cm and 93 from the hot-side blind flange. The results indicate that at a certain time, corresponding to a certain
temperature difference across the stack, the dynamic pressure wave is developed. Its amplitude increases until
steady-state. Results also show that sustainable steady-state operation is possible, thanks to the ability of the
cold heat exchanger to maintain the temperature gradient along the stack.

Figure 2: Transient dynamic pressure amplitude from startup until after damping at different axial positions inside
the engines resonator. Engine operates with 80% Argon 20% Helium and is driven with 1364-W input electric
power (at 220 Volt)
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Figure 3 below shows the temporal behavior of eight temperatures along the resonator axis: Two
temperatures are measured at the hot and cold stack sides (T_h and T_c, respectively), three temperatures inside
the stack to analyze the temperature distribution inside the stack, one at the cold heat exchanger surface and two
at different locations inside the resonator (at 30.5 cm and 46 cm from the hot-side blind flange). These results
show that as the electric input is turned off, the cold stack side experiences a sudden decrease in temperature
followed by an increase in temperature, indicating that the resulting pressure wave was actually cooling the
stack down. This is further ascertained by measuring the temperature of the cold-side heat exchanger, which
increases after turning-off the electric input to the engine.

Figure 3: Transient temperature at stack sides and inside the stack from startup until after damping at different axial
positions inside the engines resonator. Engine operates with 80% Argon 20% Helium and is driven with 1364-W
input electric power (at 220 Volt)

It is of interest to look at the temperature distribution inside the stack and how it evolves as the engine is
heated up and is cooled down. The temperature distribution inside the stack affects many of the characteristics
of the developed pressure wave, like the dynamic pressure overshoot for instance. The temporal developments
during the onset and the damping processes are shown in figures 4 and 5, respectively.




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Figure 4: Temperature distribution inside the stack from the time of engine start up to the time of steady state.
Position 0 refers to the stack hot side, position 3 refers to the stack cold side


Figure 5: Temperature distribution inside the stack from the time of engine shutdown to the time of cooling down to
close to ambient conditions. Position 0 refers to the stack hot side, position 3 refers to the stack cold side

During steady-state operation, the resulting dynamic pressure signals are acquired at different axial
locations along the resonator. Analysis of these signals can reveal several characteristics of the wave, like the
pressure amplitude and frequency of the fundamental mode as well as the strength and frequency of the
harmonics. Figures 6 and 7 show the dynamic pressure signals in time and frequency domains at low (176 W
(80 Volts)) and high (1364 W (220 Volts)) input heat rates, respectively.

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Figure 6: Time (left) and frequency (right) domains of the resulting pressure signal at low input heat rate (176W)

The time and frequency domains corresponding to a high input heat rate are shown in Figure 7 below

Figure 7: Time (left) and frequency (right) domains of the resulting pressure signal at high input heat rate (1364 W)

Comparison between figures 6 and 7 show that at low input heat rate, the performance is linear to a high
degree, as indicated by the pure sine wave in the time domain and the dominance of the fundamental wave
frequency in the frequency domain, while as the input heat rate increases, the nonlinearities grow as exhibited
mainly in the generation of higher harmonics. The time domain of the signal shows a distorted wave form and
the frequency domain reveals the existence of higher harmonics with relatively high spectral densities than
those found at low input heat rate.
Figures 8-11 show the change in acoustic power output, frequency of the wave generated, temperature
difference across the stack and the square of the dynamic pressure amplitude of the fundamental mode,
respectively at different input heat rates. In each curve, the symbols represent measured values and the solid
curve represents numerical simulations by DeltaEC.


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Figure 8: Acoustic power output Figure9: Wave frequency



Figure 10: Temperature difference across the stack Figure 11: Square of the amplitude of the dynamic
pressure amplitude of the fundamental mode

It should be noted that DeltaEC
[1]
is a linear simulation tool, and hence it does not account for harmonic
generation and consequent losses and also does not account for streaming, turbulence or vortex generation.
Additionally, it does not account for heat losses through the hot-side blind flange or resonator. These factors
cause the simulated acoustic power to be higher than the measured values.







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Part II: DeltaEC Design and Manufacturer Identification
A new design for a standing-wave thermoacoustic engine has been implemented using DeltaECsoftware.
The new design introduces an un-harmonic engine shape in order to reduce harmonics, based on the latest
results findings made in this research group
[2-4]
. A schematic of the new design is shown in Figure 12.


Figure 12: Schematic of the design of an un-harmonic standing-wave thermoacoustic engine

DeltaEcsoftware is used to optimize the engine performance by optimizing the working fluid type, the
mean gas pressure, the stack length and porosity and the dimensions of the different components. The targeted
engine performance parameters are maximum first and second law efficiencies at a reasonable temperature
difference across the stack(limited to 500 K) and a ratio between the stack spacing to the thermal penetration
depths
k
, known as the Lautrec number, in the range of 1-2.5.
At an input heat rate of 1680 W, the acoustic flow is laminar all over the engine except inside the
resonator and inside the end cone, where the acoustic Reynolds number is 3600 and 3620, respectively
[5-6]
. The
acoustic Reynolds number everywhere else is less than 400, indicating laminar flow. The estimated first and
second-law efficiencies are approximately 17% and 29 %, respectively with a resulting pressure ratio of15% of
the mean gas pressure at a temperature difference of 497 K across the stack and Lautrec number of
approximately one.
Figure 13 below shows an example of the optimization process, where the effects of the mean gas
pressure are numerically investigated on the first-law efficiency, the developed pressure ratio, the Lautrec
number and the temperature difference across the stack. The asterisk in each curvedenotes the design point.

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Figure 13A: Effect of mean gas pressure on first-law
efficiency
Figure 13B: Effect of mean gas pressure on pressure ratio

Figure 13C: Effect of mean gas pressure on Lautrec
Number
Figure 13D: Effect of mean gas pressure on the
temperature difference across the stack

In order to buildand test the performance of the thermoacoustic engine, suppliers for ceramic stacks
[7]
,
high-temperature epoxy
[8]
, pressure microphones
[9]
, Aluminum heat exchanger tubes and headers
[10]
have been
identified and contacted.
The hot-side cone will be manufactured through argon-welding of stainless steel sheets. A survey of the
local market identified potential manufacturers
[11-12]
. A supplier of custom-made copper heat exchangers
[13]
has
been identified as well.



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References:
1- DeltaEC, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos NM 87545. Freely available at
http://www.lanl.gov/thermoacoustics/DeltaEC.html
2- A. H. Ibrahim, A. A. Elbeltagy, M. M. Emam, and E. Abdel-Rahman. Development and analysis of non-
linearity in the pressure waves resulting from thermoacoustic heat engines. Proceedings of the Acoustics 2012
Nantes Conference, 23-27 April 2012, Nantes, France
3- A.H. Ibrahim, A.A. Elbeltagy, M. M. Emam, Moamen Abdou and Ehab Abdel-Rahman. Suppressing
Harmonics in Standing-Wave Thermoacoustic Engines. Workshop on Non-Normal and Nonlinear Effects in
Aero and Thermoacoustics. Technische Universitt Mnchen, 18 21 June, 2013.
4- M. M. Emam. Experimental Investigations Ona Standing-Wave Thermoacoustic Engine. M.Sc. Thesis,
Mechanical Power Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, 2013.
5- A. Berson and P. Blanc-Benon. Nonperiodicity of the flow within the gap of a thermoacoustic couple at high
amplitudes. Acoustical Society of America, vol. 122(4), 2007.
6- P. Merkli and H. Thomann. Transition to turbulence in oscillating pipe flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics ,
vol. 68(3), pp. 567-575, 1975.
7- Ceramic stacks at: www.corning.com/environmentaltechnologies/products_services/ceramic_substrates.aspx
8- High temperature epoxy at: http://www.cotronics.com/vo/cotr/pdf/4703.pdf
9- Meggitt piezo-resistive miniature pressure microphones at: www.endevco.com/8530b-500/
10- Aluminum tubes at: www.sapagroup.com/en/precision-tubing/hvacr/products/multi-port-extrusion/
11- El Gendy for Advanced Industries, 6
th
of October City, 2
nd
industrial zone .
12- Radwan Industries,6
th
of October City, 3
rd
industrial zone.
13- International Company for Supplementary Industries, 6
th
of October City, 3
rd
industrial zone.