Compact standing wave thermoacoustic generator for power conversion applications

Agarwal, Harshal ; Unni, Vishnu R. ; Akhil, K. T. ; Ravi, N. T. ; Iqbal, S. Md. ; Sujith, R. I. ; Pesala, Bala (2016) Compact standing wave thermoacoustic generator for power conversion applications Applied Acoustics, 110 . pp. 110-118. ISSN 0003-682X

Full text not available from this repository.

Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...

Related URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2016.03.028

Abstract

In the past decade, a variety of Thermoacoustic Engines (TAEs) were devised to convert thermal energy to acoustic power. In this paper, we optimized the design of a standing wave thermoacoustic generator that can provide high intensity acoustic pressure and convert it into electrical power output using a low cost alternator. Three prototypes of standing wave Thermoacoustic Generator (TAG) were designed to optimize the overall efficiency. The first prototype of standing wave TAG could produce an acoustic pressure of 0.9 kPa (153 dB) with an input thermal power of 210 W. Further, the maximum heat to electrical conversion efficiency was 0.045% with an input thermal power of 250 W. However, the performance of this system was not fully optimized. The performance of TAE depends upon various parameters including stack position, stack length and resonator length. Hence, a new second prototype of tunable TAG was developed to tune these critical parameters in order to improve the overall efficiency. A compact third prototype of TAG was successfully built with optimized parameters and has been tested. In the improved design, high intensity acoustic pressure of 2.9 kPa (163.5 dB) was observed for the same 210 W input thermal power. The maximum heat to electrical energy conversion efficiency was 0.084% with an input of 250 W which is 87% higher as compared to the first prototype. The major reason for the lower conversion efficiency is due to the low efficiency of the alternator. In future, high efficiency alternator designs can be employed along with careful impedance matching to obtain higher conversion efficiencies. The results described in this paper demonstrate the potential of developing compact portable acoustic power and electricity generators for decentralized power applications.

Item Type:Article
Source:Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Keywords:Thermoacoustic Engine; Tunable Thermoacoustic Generator; Heat Exchanger; Electrical Efficiency; Standing Wave
ID Code:109923
Deposited On:21 Dec 2017 10:57
Last Modified:21 Dec 2017 10:57

Repository Staff Only: item control page