Abstract
A thermoacoustic refrigerator is remarkable because it uses natural gas as a refrigerant and doesn't need a routine maintenance. Some experimental discussions and analysis have bee done, but there are few effective methods of system design of this refrigerator. In this paper, some results of performance tests of the heat-driven thermoacoustic driver and the heat-driven thermoacoustic refrigerator are discussed. In the acoustic driver's test, some kinds of stack are used to find out the optimum condition of stack configuration. From the result, there is an optimum condition of the stack configuration such as the ratio of the hydraulic diameter (D_h) to the thermal penetration depth (δ_K), and heat exchanging area. In conclusion, a large mesh is desirable for the stack, however, since certain amount of heat transfer area is necessary for the stack so the length of stack gets longer as a necessity. In order to enhance the performance, this driver's equipment should be big. In addition, the discussion of enhancement of the system performance and the possibility as an application is done.
