Amplitude Dependence of Thermoacoustic Properties of Stacked Wire Meshes

Abstract

We compare a regenerator comprised of stacked wire meshes with that made of a honeycomb ceramic catalyst by measuring the acoustic fields in a tube containing the regenerator and air working gas at atmospheric pressure. The flow resistance of the wire-mesh regenerator increases in proportion to the velocity amplitude, whereas that of the honeycomb regenerator remains constant. An empirical equation of the flow resistance is proposed for the wire-mesh regenerator using an acoustic Reynolds number and ωτ_ν (ω is the angular frequency of the acoustic waves and τ_νis the viscous relaxation time given using effective pore radius). The difference between these regenerators is also observed in the increased acoustic power achieved in the presence of axial temperature differences.