Thermoacoustic refrigeration is an environmentally safe refrigeration technology that has evolved over the past three decades [1–5]. The influence of working fluid on the performance of the thermoacoustic refrigerator (TAR) expressed in terms of the cooling load and the coefficient of performance is discussed in the paper. The calculations rely on the short stack boundary layer approximation. A simple model of a one-dimensional half wavelength resonance tube equipped with stack plates and a pair of heat exchangers was used as the physical model. It is known that a TAR with noble gases and their mixtures as working fluids can achieve high values of the coefficient of performance (COP) because of small Prandtl number values. The present study revealed and quantified that cooling load behavior is quite different from the performance in terms of the COP: the highest cooling load is achieved with pure Helium as the working fluid. A reason is the very high sound speed in Helium. TARs with Helium as the working fluids deliver the highest cooling load of all gases and their mixtures examined here, therefore it has been suggested as a limiting case of the most powerful TAR. The influence of geometry and thermophysical parameters of the device on TAR performance was studied systematically and a performance sensitiviy analysis was presented with particular emphasis on TAR cooling load.
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ASME 2008 Heat Transfer Summer Conference collocated with the Fluids Engineering, Energy Sustainability, and 3rd Energy Nanotechnology Conferences
August 10–14, 2008
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Heat Transfer Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4849-4
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Performance of Thermoacoustic Refrigerators: Cooling Load and Coefficient of Performance
Cila Herman,
Cila Herman
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
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Christopher Lavin,
Christopher Lavin
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
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Zdeneˇk Tra´vni´cˇek
Zdeneˇk Tra´vni´cˇek
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Search for other works by this author on:
Cila Herman
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Christopher Lavin
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Zdeneˇk Tra´vni´cˇek
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Paper No:
HT2008-56436, pp. 755-760; 6 pages
Published Online:
July 7, 2009
Citation
Herman, C, Lavin, C, & Tra´vni´cˇek, Z. "Performance of Thermoacoustic Refrigerators: Cooling Load and Coefficient of Performance." Proceedings of the ASME 2008 Heat Transfer Summer Conference collocated with the Fluids Engineering, Energy Sustainability, and 3rd Energy Nanotechnology Conferences. Heat Transfer: Volume 3. Jacksonville, Florida, USA. August 10–14, 2008. pp. 755-760. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/HT2008-56436
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