THERMOACOUSTIC

REFRIGERATION

-DHEEMANTHA BHAT
BASAVARAJA METI

Introduction

One ordinarily thinks of a sound wave as consisting only of

coupled pressure and position oscillations. In fact,
temperature oscillations accompany the pressure
oscillations.
In an extremely intense sound wave in a pressurized gas,
these thermoacoustic effects can be harnessed.
Whereas typical engines and refrigerators rely on
crankshaft-coupled pistons or rotating turbines,
thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators have no moving
parts.
This simplicity, coupled with reliability and relatively low
cost, has the potential of thermoacoustic devices for
practical use.

Principle

Sound waves travel in a longitudinal fashion. They travel

with successive compression and rarefaction of the
medium in which they travel.
This compression and expansion respectively lead to the
heating and cooling of the gas.
This principle is employed to bring about the refrigeration
effect in a thermoacoustic refrigerator.

Components of Thermoacoustic
Refrigerator

Acoustic driver
Stack
Heat exchanger
Resonator

LOUDSPEAKER

The loudspeaker, which acts as the driver,

sustains acoustic standing waves in the gas at
the fundamental resonance frequency of the
resonator.
The acoustic standing wave displaces the gas
in the channels of the stack while compressing
and expanding respectively leading to heating
and cooling of the gas.

HEAT EXCHANGER

The heat exchangers employed in a

thermoacoustic refrigerator influence the
acoustic field created in the resonator.
There are many design constraints such
as porosity of the heat exchanger and
high heat transfer coefficient for efficiency.
Due to these constraints, special kind of
heat exchangers are used.
One typical micro channel aluminum heat
exchanger is shown below.

Microchannel Aluminium Heat Exchanger

STACK

It is also called as regenerator.

The most important piece of a thermoacoustic device is the stack.
The stack consists of a large number of closely spaced surfaces that are
aligned parallel to the to the resonator tube.
In a usual resonator tube, heat transfer occurs between the walls of cylinder
and the gas.

RESONATOR

This the part of refrigerator which is only there

for maintaining the acoustic wave. Because it is
a dead volume which causes heat loss and
adds bulk, quarter wavelength resonators are
preferred over half wavelength

WORKING

When a sound wave is sent down a half-wavelength tube

with a vibrating diaphragm or a loudspeaker, the pressure
pulsations make the gas inside slosh back and forth. This
forms regions where compression and heating take place,
plus other areas characterized by gas expansion and
cooling.

A thermoacoustic refrigerator is a resonator cavity that contains a stack of

thermal storage elements (connected to hot and cold heat exchangers)
positioned so the back-and-forth gas motion occurs within the stack.
The oscillating gas parcels pick up heat from the stack and deposit it to the
stack at a different location. The device "acts like a bucket brigade" to
remove heat from the cold heat exchanger and deposit it at the hot heat
exchanger, thus forming the basis of a refrigeration unit.

THERMOACOUSTIC CYCLE

The figure traces the basic

thermoacoustic cycle for a packet
of gas, a collection of gas
molecules that act and move
together.
Starting from point 1, the packet of
gas is compressed and moves to
the left.
As the packet is compressed, the
sound wave does work on the
packet of gas, providing the power
for the refrigerator.

12

 As the packet is compressed, the sound wave does work on

the packet of gas, providing the power for the refrigerator.

When the gas packet is at maximum

compression, the gas rejects the heat
back

into

the

stack

since

the

temperature of the gas is now higher

than the temperature of the stack.

13

 In the second phase of the cycle, the gas is returned to the initial
state. As the gas packet moves back towards the right, the sound
wave expands the gas.
Although some work is expended
to return the gas to the initial state,
the heat released on the top of the
stack is greater than the work
expended to return the gas to the
initial state.
This process results in a net
transfer of heat to the left side of
the stack.
14

 Finally, in step 4, the packets of

gas reabsorb heat from the cold
reservoir.
The heat transfer repeats and
hence

the

thermoacoustic

refrigeration cycle.

15

ADVANTAGES OF TAR
No moving parts for the process, so very reliable and a long life span.
Environmentally friendly working medium (air, noble gas).
Use of simple materials with no special requirements, which are
commercially available in large quantities and therefore relatively cheap.
Also sonic compression or sound wave refrigeration uses sound to
compress refrigerants which replace the traditional compressor and need
for lubricants.

ADVANTAGES OF TAR
On the same technology base a large variety of
applications can be covered.
Thermoacoustic refrigeration works best with inert
gases such as helium and argon, which are
harmless,
depleting

nonflammable,
or

global

nontoxic,

warming

inexpensive to manufacture.

and

non-ozone
is

judged

DISADVANTAGES OF TAR
Efficiency: Thermoacoustic refrigeration is currently less
efficient than the traditional refrigerators.
Lack of suppliers producing customized components.
Talent Bottleneck: There are not enough people who have
expertise on the combination of relevant disciplines such as
acoustic, heat exchanger design etc.

APPLICATIONS
Chip cooling
Electronic equipment cooling on navy ships:
this application, a speaker generates sound waves. Again a
thermo acoustic pump is used to provide the cooling.
Upgrading industrial waste heat:
Acoustic energy is created by means of industrial waste heat
in a thermo acoustic engine. In a thermo acoustic heat pump
this acoustic energy is used to upgrade the same waste heat
to a useful temperature level.

FUTURE SCOPE
Experimenting with different frequencies and stack
placements could yield greater efficiency
Improvements to the resonator tube would involve
further research into effects that differently shaped
tubes would affect on the thermoacoustic effect
Modeling the acoustic properties by computer
simulation and predict efficient tube-frequency
combinations .

CONCLUSION
The Thermoacoustic Refrigeration System consists
of no moving parts. Hence the maintenance cost is
also low. The system is not bulky. It doesnt use any
refrigerant and hence has no polluting effects
Thermo acoustic refrigerators were already being
considered for specialized applications, where their
simplicity, lack of lubrication and sliding seals.

REFERENCES

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Engineering_Acoustics/Thermoacoustics#
/media/File:Poese.jpg
International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering
(IJIRAE) Issue 2, Volume 2 (February 2015) Page -160 A Study of
Thermoacoustic Refrigeration System
Using porous material for heat transfer enhancement in heat
exchanger: ReviewInternational Journal of Heat and Technology 31(2)
December 2012
Tabletop thermoacoustic refrigerator for demonstrations
Daniel A. Russell and Pontus Weibulla
http://www.slideshare.net/Nimalan_I/thermoacoustic-refrigeration

THANK YOU