Modeling of components of a traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator taking into account nonlinear losses

Abstract

Thermoacoustic refrigerators offer the advantages such as being environmentally friendly due to the usage of common gases such as helium, argon, and nitrogen gases as their working fluids. This paper presents a nonlinear model of a traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator capable of accurate analysis at large amplitudes, which enables the performance prediction and design of high-power thermoacoustic refrigerators. To develop the model, the loudspeaker parameters were measured and modeled. In addition, the acoustic power losses that occurred when sound waves passed through the bend and T-junction tubes were measured. Based on these experimental results, the thermoacoustic refrigerator model was proposed and verified under large-amplitude conditions.