THERMOACOUSTIC REFRIGERATOR DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE (HEAT ENGINE, RESONATOR, MICROPHONE)

The thermoacoustic theory of N. Rott is applied to a design for a thermoacoustic refrigerator having one moving part. Some general features and practical aspects of the design are discussed.; A fully functional refrigerator has been constructed and its measured temperature and efficiency performance is presented. The lowest measured ratio of cold temperature to ambient temperature is 0.66 and the highest measured coefficient of performance relative to Carnot is 12% of Carnot at a temperature ratio of 0.82. The refrigerator is powered by a high-intensity acoustic driver apparatus that is instrumented for accurate measurement of the accoustic power delivered by the driver. The accuracy of the power measurement is (+OR-)3% and the phase between the acoustic pressure and velocity at the driver is measured with an accuracy of (+OR-)1(DEGREES).; There are various acoustic losses and heat loading effects that occur in the experiment in addition to the primary measured powers. The magnitude of these additional effects have been either measured or calculated so that a valid comparison between the experiment the Rott theory can be made. The resulting agreement between experiment and theory is fair.