Theoretical And Experimental Study Of A Loudspeaker-driven Thermoacoustic Refrigerator

The thermoacoustic refrigerator driven by the loudspeaker takes advantage of thermoacoustic effect to obtain refrigeration. The refrigerator is easy to construct, reliable, long-life and friendly to environment. It is expected to be widely applied in aerospace, cryo-electronics, superconductivity, cryobiology and so on. The acoustic driver consists of a loudspeaker attached to one end of gas filled resonance, stacks of parallel channels placed in proper position of the resonance, cold and hot heat exchangers. The loudspeaker keeps the frequency of the standing wave around the basic frequency. The gas experiences compression and expansion in the stack channels, and so the gas oscillation is formed. The heat is transferred between the oscillating gas and the surface of the stack and is pumped from the cold to the hot end. The hot and cold heat exchangers transfer heat between the refrigerator and the environment.Firstly, the background and significance of the research of the thermoacoustic refrigerator are given. The history and the present state are summarized in brief. And the principle of the thermoacoustic refrigerator is also introduced for further discussion. Secondly, important modification have been done on the previous refrigerator and a temperature drop of 27C has been obtained, which is the best result reported in China. Finally, to further improve the performance of the refrigerator, a new thermoacoustic refrigerator is designed. The performance of the refrigerator is calculated by the DeltaE program. And the simulation results agree with the requirement of the design. To increase the COP of present thermoacoustic refrigerator, the idea to use the mixture of noble gases is proposed. The theoretical calculation shows that the COP of refrigerator can be significantly increased by using appropriate gas mixture.