ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOUR OF GAS AND STACK MATERIAL

FOR FEASIBLE PERFORMANCE OF

THERMOACOUSTIC REFRIGERATOR MODEL

PRESENTED BY
AAKASH B PATEL
170820721009

Guided by
Prof. Darshan Gajdhar Prof. Avdhoot Jejurkar
Assistant Professor Reader
Mechanical Engineering Dept. Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Dr.Jivraj Mehta Institute Of Technology

Mogar,Anand.
 Overview
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Literature Review
 Research Gap
 Problem Definition
 Work Done
 Work to be done in sem 4
 Project Plan
 References 2
 ABSTRACT
Thermoacoustic refrigerator is new refrigeration technology which does not
require any moving parts and harmful refrigerants in its operation. This
technology uses acoustic waves to pump heat across a temperature gradient.
The vast majority of Thermoacoustic refrigerators to date have used
electromagnetic loudspeakers to generate the acoustic input. In this thesis, the
design, construction, operation of a Thermoacoustic refrigerator is detailed.
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 present work describes theoretical study and experimental investigation
of standing wave Thermoacoustic refrigerator and mainly focuses on
improving the performance of Thermoacoustic refrigerator by fabrication of
stack with two different material low thermal conductive material at cold side
and high conductive material at hot side.

3
 Introduction
 Thermoacoustic is the study of things that involve both
acoustics(sound waves) and thermodynamics(energy conversion).

 The interaction of heat and sound has interested since 1816.

 Newton had assumed that the expansions and compressions of sound

wave in a gas happened without affecting the temperature.

 But Laplace accounted for the slight variations in temperature that

in fact take place.

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 Introduction

Thermodynamics Heat

Thermoacoustics
Acoustics Sound

Forward Effect Reverse Effect

Pressure Sound for

Oscillation pumping heat

Thermoacoustic Thermoacoustic
Engine Refrigerator
 Q
Thermodynamic point of view H

Thermoacoustic
W Refrigerator

Sound

Q
c

Heating of Gas
Compression
molecules

Cooling of Gas
Expansion
molecules
Vibration that travel through the air and produced by continues and
regular vibrations.

Sound wave is travelling wave which is oscillation of pressure.

As sound wave travel through medium like air or gas, compression
and expansion takes place.

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 Components of TAR

Driver Sound wave

Stack Heart of TAR

Heat Exchanger For Heat Exchange

Resonator

Stack Holder

Small Dia.
Tube

Buffer Volume
 Heat Exchanger

Driver Buffer volume

Resonator
Stack

Heat exchanger

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*
 Literature Review
No Title Author/Journal/ Inference
Year

M.E.H.Tijani,  In this paper, manufacturing of the different component of

Construction & the device is explained along with the reasons for using
J.C.H.Zeegers, specific material.
performance of
1 A.T.A.M.de Waele  After manufacturing of each part method for assembling of
Thermo- parts is given.
Cryogenics 42
acoustic  Here electro dynamic speaker, spiral stack of Mylar sheet,
2002 Heat exchanger of copper sheet and Helium as a working
Refrigerator. gas are used.
 In this paper, Helium as working gas, electrodynamics`
Design and B.Ananda Rao , speaker with 360Hz frequency, quarter wavelength resonator
Experimental M.Prasanth Kumar tube are used.
D. Srinivasa Rao.  Following parameters are analyzed in this paper
study of small
1.Temp. distribution in the resonator tube with / without
2 scale Fabricated stack.
IJETT 2.Stack position in the resonator tube for max.
Thermo-acoustic temp.difference.
3.Effect of insulation around the resonator.
Refrigerator 2013
 Conclusion is that, temp. distribution along the resonator is
effected by the presence of stack. After 300 second of
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operation a temp. gradient of 15ºC was established.
No Title Author/Journal/ Inference
Year
This paper describes the basic design procedure for
Effect of mean B.G.Prashantha, designing a small scale refrigerator and the effect of varying
operating M.S. Govinde mean operating pressure on its performance.
Gowdab, The objective of work is to reduce length of the resonator so
pressure on the
S. Seetharamuc as to make the device compact and hence there is a scope for
3 performance of increasing the performance of the refrigerator.
IASKS
stack-based Result shows that the performance of stack based
2013
thermoacoustic refrigeration improves if we operate the
Thermo-acoustic device at higher mean operating pressure.
Refrigerator.

In this paper, Effect of plate thickness and spacing with

Influence of N.M. Hariharan, different resonator length on temperature difference /
stack geometry P.Sivashanmum, frequency and pressure amplitude are analyzed.

and resonator S.Kasthurirengn After experimental analysis conclusion was that, increasing
4 in plate spacing and resonator length leads to decrease in
length on the working frequency and increase in onset temperature
difference and pressure amplitude both for 0.3 and 0.5 mm
performance of Applied Acoustic thick plates.
thermoacoustic Plate
12 thickness of 0.3 mm gives a large temp. diff. compare
2012 to 0.5 mm plate thickness.
engine.
No Title Author/Journal/ Inference
Year
 In this paper, characteristic of sound wave inside a half
The Impact of ChannarongWanth wavelength resonator is investigated, frequency is set 440 Hz.
the Resonance Kriengkrai  To verify the pressure antinodes and node along the axis in the
Assawamartbunlue resonator tube, microphones are used.
tube on
5
 Result shows that minimum pressure exist at the middle of the
performance of
FHMT tube and max. pressure is in the front of the speaker.
a
 Experimental result shows that increasing resonator length
Thermoacoustic increase temperature difference across the stack up to certain
2011 level.
Stack.
 Number of simulations using gases such as He, Ar, N2 and He-
Theoretical Ajinkya Sarode,
Ar mixture were carried out in DeltaEC to investigate the
performance of the thermoacoustic refrigerator in terms of
Investigations On Vijay Dighe,
pressure amplitude, onset temperature and resonating frequency.
Vinay Ingle,
Standing Wave  It can be concluded that Argon has the maximum pressure
6 Nilesh Kolekar amplitude at all working pressures, while Helium has the
Thermoacoustic
minimum pressure amplitude.
Prime Mover
IJRET  But, in case of Argon the onset temperature is high as compared
Using Deltaec . to Helium and Nitrogen. So, it becomes unfavourable to use
April- 2014 Argon as working gas. Therefore, to get a balance between onset
temperature
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and pressure amplitude, a mixture of He-Ar can be
used in appropriate composition. .
 Most of the researchers have work on different parameters like mean
pressure, stack position, resonator length, operating frequency, inert
gas and investigated influence of these parameters on the
performance of thermo-acoustic refrigerator.

 But the main component of the thermo-acoustic device is stack, where

heat transfer process is takes place and which is mainly responsible
for C.O.P of the refrigerator.

 Literature review reveals that the researchers have carried out most of
the work on stack was related to its position.

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 Fabrication of stack by low thermal conductive material like drinking
straws, camera film, ceramics and Mylar sheet are in application.

 Reason behind choosing low thermal conductive material is to prevent

flow of heat from hot side of the stack to cold side.

 But choosing Low thermal conductive material, make compromise

with thermal effusivity and thermal diffusivity.

 The effusivity measures the rate at which a material can absorb heat.

 The diffusivity measure how quickly a material reacts to a change in

temperature.
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 Problem Definition
 According to design requirement and all literature review revels that
stack material should be low thermal conductive, because if thermal
conductive material is used in fabrication of stack than heat will flow
from hot side to the cold side of the stack. Which affect the
performance of the Thermoacoustic refrigerator.
 Low thermal conductivity decrease thermal effusivity of material
which is measure of ability of the material to absorb heat from the
surrounding.
 So to increase thermal effusivity of stack, high thermal conductive
material should be used and for preventing heat flow from hot side to
cold side, insulator can be used between hot side and cold side. So
problem definition is

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“ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOUR OF GAS
AND STACK MATERIAL FOR
FEASIBLE PERFORMANCE OF
THERMOACOUSTIC
REFRIGERATOR MODEL”

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OBJECTIVES

 Understanding the Thermoacoustic Refrigerator Concept

 Design and Fabrication of Thermoacoustic Refrigerator

 Experimental And Evaluation

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 Design requirements of TAR
[a] Working Gas

 Large Thermal Penetration Depth (δk)

Thermal penetration depth is measure of how well a fluid can transfer heat
through its boundary.

 Small Viscous Penetration Depth (δv)

Viscous penetration depth is measure of the frictional losses within the fluid.

 Lower Prandtl Number (σ)

Prandtl number must be very small, because it indicates higher penetration
depth and lower viscous penetration depth
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 [b] Mean Pressure
 Effect of mean pressure on strength of the resonator

Higher pressure require stronger pressure vessel. Designing a stronger

resonator often leads to more expensive material and a heavier TAR Higher
pressure makes it more difficult to seal the working gas inside.

 Effect of mean pressure on thermal penetration depth

The thermal penetration depth is inversely proportional to the square root of

the mean pressure, so as mean pressure increases, the thermal penetration
depth decreases.
Therefore, choice of mean pressure must balance its effect on power density,
resonator design and stack design.

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 [c] Resonator

 Mechanical strength
The resonator material must be strong enough to contain the gas at maximum
pressure. For some material these constraints may lead to thicker resonator
walls, increasing the bulk and weight of TAR.

 Low Thermal conductive

To prevent heat flow from hot side of the stack to the cold side, throughout
the wall of resonator, the material must be low thermal conductive.

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 [d] Acoustic Driver

 The total acoustic power used by the refrigerator is provided by an acoustic

driver. A significant portion of this power is used to pump heat in the stack
and the rest is dissipated in different parts of refrigerator.

 A higher performance of driver leads to a higher performance of whole

refrigeration system. The most common loudspeaker is of electro dynamic
type which uses copper wires and permanent magnets.

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 [e] The Stack

The stack must be able to efficiently convert the acoustic pressure

oscillations into a temperature gradient.

Low Thermal conductivity

Because TAR’s main purpose is to move heat from one end of the stack to
another, heat conduction in opposite direction (from hot end to cold end)
results in a reduction of efficiency.

Larger Sp.Heat capacity than gas

A stack with a larger heat capacity is less affected by the temperature
oscillation of nearby gas. Which is desirable because it allows the
temperature gradient along the stack walls to remain study.

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 Fabrication of Hybrid Stack
 According to design requirement stack should be made of low thermal
conductive material to prevent flow of heat from hot side to cold side.

 Low thermal conductive material contain low thermal effusivity and

diffusivity.

 We need to fabricate two types of stacks here,

[1] High thermal conductive + insulator + Low thermal conductive

(Hot side) (Cold side)
[2] Low thermal conductive + insulator + High thermal conducive
(Hot side) (Cold side)

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 Design of Thermoacoustic Refrigerator in the dissertation is

based on Tijani M E H, “Loudspeaker Driven Thermoacoustic

Refrigeration”.

 Tijani published a paper describing in detail the process used

to design a Thermoacoustic refrigerator from start to finish. He

starts off by designing the stack in such a way as to be able to

meet the cooling requirements.

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This stack design is performed by first making

choices for the average pressure, frequency, dynamic

pressure, and working gas.

After these variables have been selected, the

material, geometry, and position of the actual stack is

designed and optimized.

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 Fabrication of TAR
The components of Thermoacoustic refrigerator are
driver, stack, hot heat exchanger and cold heat exchanger,
function generator, amplifier.
Resonator
The resonator tube is the hollow component of the
resonator system. It is placed between the reducer and the
buffer volume.

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The resonator tube consists of a small diameter tube,
reducers, stack holder and buffer volume.

Large diameter tube

MS pipe [OD-46mm, ID-40mm] welded to the circular
flange [Material-MS, OD-125mm, ID- 40mm]. Circular
flange has four hole for the bolt [M12*50mm]
Small diameter tube
MS pipe [OD-26mm, ID-20mm] welded to the reducer
[50mm to 26mm] at the driver side and welded to the another
reducer [60mm to 26mm] at the buffer volume side.

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29
 Buffer volume

The buffer volume is a large conical volume which

simulates the ‘open end’ of the quarter wavelength

resonator. The buffer volume is also made of MS.A wall

thickness of 6 mm and a length of 27 cm. It is welded to

the small diameter tube.

Step by step method for fabrication of buffer volume

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31
• Fabrication of other remaining Components.
• Assembly of all the Components
• Charge working fluid (Helium) in the system of
TAR at appropriate Pressure.
• Experimental Analysis of TAR.

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 Activity Jul Aug Sept Oct. Nov. Dec Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May
18 18 18 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 19

Literature
Survey
Problem
Definition

Study of Design

Fabrication of
TAR

Experimental on
TAR

Result &
Discussion

Thesis Writing
33
Publication
1.Tijani M E H, “Loudspeaker Driven Thermoacoustic Refrigeration”,
PhD Dissertation, Technical University of Eindhoven, Netherlands,
2001.

2.Swift G W, “Thermoacoustic: a unifying perspective for some engines

and refrigerators”, Acoustical society of America, New York, 2002.

3.Gifford W E and Longsworth R C, “Surface heat pumping, Advance

Cryogenics engineering, 171”, 1975.

4.Daniel George Chinn, “Piezoelectrically-driven Thermoacoustic

refrigerator”, Master of Science, University of Maryland, College Park,
2010.
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5.Orest G. Symko, "Mfiniature Thermoacoustic Refrigerator'’, Department of
Physics University of Utab Salt Lake City, Utah, 1994.84112 (801), pp.581-
6132.

6.Meghan L and Andrew Lingenfelter “Design and Construction of A

Thermoacoustic Refrigerator”, Worcester” Polytechnic Institute.

7.Yousif A, “The Influence of Wave Patterns and Frequency on Thermo-

Acoustic Cooling Effect”, Journal of Engineering Science and Technology,
2011, Vol. 6, pp. 392 – 396.

8.Autumn Term, “Design, Construction and Resonance Tracking of a

Laboratory Scale, Loudspeaker-Driven Thermoacoustic Cooler”, Swiss federal
institute of technology, Zurich, 2013.
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