IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology| Volume 1 | Issue 11 | April 2015

ISSN (online): 2349-6010

Effect of Working Gases and Stack Material on A

Thermoacoustic Refrigerator - A Review
Mr. Mandhata Yadav Kuldeep I. Solanki
Assistant Professor P G Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering(Thermal)
Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Piludara Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Piludara

Abstract
Thermoacoustic refrigeration is an environmental friendly technology as it uses gases like air, helium as a refrigerant. Its biggest
advantage is that they do not use harmful gas as a refrigerant. It is pollutant free method of providing refrigeration. It uses helium
which is noncombustible, nonpoisonous inert gas having zero global warming effect. According to Montreal protocol which is
international agreement signed by 165 countries to control the production and exchange of ozone depleting substances. It
controls the import, export, manufacture, use, sale of any HCFC or product that contains or intended to contain HCFCs as this
regulation comes in to play thermoacoustic refrigeration proves to be a green technology .As it does not contain any moving part
other than speaker which increase the lifespan of product and decrease the maintenance cost. So it does not use lubricant. It only
uses the sound wave which is pressure wave for cooling.The only disadvantage of this thermoacoustic refrigeration is it has low
C.O.P compare to other conventional cooler. But most efficient system are tried to be made. Lots of research is going on in this
area.This paper is focuses on use of different gases with stacks of different materials and finding best suitable or optimum
combination which gives higher value of c.o.p.
Keywords: Acoustic, Stack
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I. INTRODUCTION
Thermoacoustic refrigeration uses advanced acoustic technology to improve cooling capacity without the need for
environmentally destructive refrigerants. The mechanism of the TAR is simple, based on the expansion and compression of a gas
by sound wave.
When a sound wave from a vibrating diaphragm or loudspeaker is sent down a half wave length tube, the pressure pulsations
from a standing wave, which cause oscillatory motion of gas in the tube’s axial direction. The combination of pressure
oscillation and oscillatory motion of gas causes heat transport wherever the gas is in thermal contact with a stationary surface. If
small structure with a large amount of surface area is placed in an appropriate location in an intense standing wave, substantial
amounts of heat transport will occur, with one end cooled by heat transport, and the other end heated,
This structure is usually called a “stack”; if both ends of the stack make thermal contact with heat exchangers, a functional heat
pump or refrigerator can be constructed.

Fig. 1: A Simple Illustration of Thermoacoustic Refrigerator

A. Driver:
The driver in thermoacoustic refrigerator is used to create the acoustic wave within a thermoacoustic refrigerator.

B. Resonator:
The purpose of resonator is to contain the working fluid in a thermoacoustic refrigerator, and cause it to have a desired natural
frequency.

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 Effect of Working Gases and Stack Material on A Thermoacoustic Refrigerator - A Review
(IJIRST/ Volume 1 / Issue 11 / 025)

C. Stack:
Stack is the heart of the thermoacoustic refrigerator. This is where the thermoacoustic effect takes place and is perhaps the most
sensitive part.

D. Heat Exchanger:
Heat exchanger is used for the transfer of heat at cold and hot side of stack. Hot exchanger placed at hot side of stack while cold
exchanger placed at cold side.

E. Working Fluid:
Working fluid is filled in the resonator at high pressure. Noble gases are as a working fluid.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW ON WIRE CUT ELECTRO DISCHARGE MACHINE

1) Construction and performance of a thermoacoustic refrigerato.,M.E.H. Tijani, J.C.H. Zeegers, A.T.A.M. de Waele,
cryogenics42 (2002), PP 59-66.
Researchers start this paper with description of design and construction of many parts followed by explanation of the
preparation of gas mixture. In this paper researcher had mentioned manufacturing procedure of thermoacoustic refrigerator and
also he had discussed the construction of many part. They had found from measurement that their system behave exactly as they
had assumed and they had achieved lowest temperature of -65º C.
2) Design and Experimental Study of Small Scale Fabricated Thermo-Acoustic Refrigerator, B.Ananda Rao, M.Prasanth
Kumar, D.srinivasa Rao,International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology(IJETT), Volume 4,9 Sep,2013.
In this, researchers first fabricate small scale thermo-acoustic refrigerator and then investigate parameters like temperature
distribution in the resonator tube without the stack, temperature distribution with the stack, effect of insulation around the
resonator, stack position in the resonator tube for maximum temperature difference. They conclude that temperature distribution
along the resonator is significantly affected by the presence of stack and after nearly 300 seconds of operation a temperature
difference of 15ºC was established across the stack.
3) Effect of mean operating pressure on the performance of stack-based thermoacoustic refrigerator”, B.G.Prashantha,
M.S. Govinde Gowdab , S. Seetharamuc, Int. J. Of Thermal & Environmental Engineering Volume 5, No. 1(2013) 83-
89
In these paper researchers describes the basic procedure for designing a laboratory scale stack-based thermoacoustic
refrigerator model and the effect of varying the mean operating pressure on its performance. They found that the cooling capacity
of the thermoacoustic refrigerator model can be increased by increasing the mean operating pressure.
4) Influence of stack geometry and resonator length on the performance of thermoacoustic engin, N.M. Hariharana , P.
Sivashanmugama , S. Kasthurirenganb,Applied Acoustic 73 (2012) 1052-1058.
In these study, researchers examine the influence of plate thickness, plate spacing and resonator length on the performance of
standing wave open end thermoacoustic primemover. They conclude that increasing plate thickness and resonator length leads to
decrease in working frequency and increase in onset temperature difference and pressure amplitude.
5) The impact of the resonance tube on performance of a thermoacoustic stack, Channarong wanthaa, Kriengkrai
Assawamarbunluea, Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer,2,043006 (2011).
In this, researchers first investigate the characteristic of sound wave inside a half-wavelength resonance tube and set the length
of resonance tube. Then they measured the pressure distribution along the resonance tube without putting the stack inside the
tube with the help of microphone. They found that minimum pressure exists at the middle of the resonance tube and maximum
pressure is in front of the driver and they conclude that to enhance the efficiency of the stack, the stack must be placed between
the pressure antinodes and pressure node and must have maximum difference pressure amplitude.
6) Design and Optimization of a Thermo-Acoustic Refrigerator, Bheemsha1, Ramesh Nayak. B 2, Pundarika. International
Journal of Emerging trends in Engineering and Development, ISSN 2249-6149,Issue1, Vol. 2.
In this literature, complete picture on history of thermo acoustic is given. Here optimization was carried out using MATLAB.
The optimisation of different components was carried out to improve the performance and minimize losses in thermoacoustic
refrigerator

III. CONCLUSION
All literature review revels that the stack is heart of the thermoacoustic refrigeration system and the work or research conducted
on stack is only regarding to its location in resonator and its length but there is still lack of ideal model of stack and effect of
working fluid (gas) on it. So, aim of this project is to improve the performance of thermoacoustic refrigerator by analyzing the
parameters or factor which affects the performance of thermoacoustic refrigerator trying to improve the performance of
thermoacoustic refrigerator by changing the various parameter and studying their effect on thermoacoustic refrigerator.
Experimental investigations of Thermo-acoustics refrigerator with helium, nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide gas at different
charging pressures with use different stack material and Finding the best combination of stack material and working gases for
creating maximum temperature difference across the stack.

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 Effect of Working Gases and Stack Material on A Thermoacoustic Refrigerator - A Review
(IJIRST/ Volume 1 / Issue 11 / 025)

REFERENCES
[1] M.E.H. Tijani, J.C.H Zeegers, A.T.A.M. de Waele, “Construction and performance of thermoacoustic refrigerator”, cryogenics42(2002), PP 59-66.
[2] B.Ananda Rao, M.Prasanth Kumar, D.Srinivasa Rao, “Design and Experimental study of Small-Scale Fabricated Thermo-Acoustic Refrigerator”,
International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT), Volume 4,9 Sep,2013.
[3] B.G. Prashanthaa , M.S. Govinde Gowdab, S.Seetharamuc “Effect of Mean Operating Pressure on the Performance of Stack-based Thermo acoustic
refrigerator”, Int. J. Of Thermal & Environmental Engineering Volume 5, No. 1(2013) 83-89.
[4] N.M. Hariharana , P. Sivashanmugama , S. Kasthurirenganb “Influence of stack geometry and resonator length on the performance of thermoacoustic
engine”, Applied Acoustic 73 (2012) 1052-1058.
[5] Channarong wanthaa, Kriengkrai Assawamarbunluea “The impact of the resonance tube on performance of a thermoacoustic stack”, Frontiers in Heat and
Mass Transfer,2, 043006 (2011).
[6] Bheemsha1, Ramesh Nayak. B 2, Pundarika.G3 “Design and Optimization of a ThermoAcoustic Refrigerator”, International Journal of Emerging trends in
Engineering and Development, ISSN 2249-6149,Issue1, Vol. 2.

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