Abstract
An acoustical traveling-wave engine was theoretically proposed by Ceperley [J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 66, 1508-1513(1979)]. In the regenerator with a positive temperature gradient, the gas exchanging heat isothermally with solid walls undergoes a thermodynamic cycle essentially similar to a Stirling cycle. As a result, acoustic waves through the regenerator are amplified. This idea showed a good starting point leading to developments of various thermoacoustic devices, but has not been verified yet by experiments. In this work, we conducted the experiments similar but with wider experimental parameters; temperature ratio (1 ≤< T_H/T_C < 2.3), frequency (3 < f < 200 Hz), and regenerator materials (0.3 < r_o, r_l < 0.8 mm). We show that a ceramic honeycomb functions better as a regenerator materials than a stack of stainless-steel screens.
