• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.44-52
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• 1996

Acoustical characteristics of internal pipe structures and a loudspeaker of the thermoacoustic refrigerator are analyzed by using the transfer matrix method. The resonator system is dismantled into verious basic acoustic elements, and then linearized transfer matrices are serially combined with the dynamical system of linearized loudspeaker model, that the total system of thermoacoustic refrigerator can be analyzed in terms of frequency characteristics and acoustic field shape. Additionally, by using equations for energy flow through the capillary stack, the temperature distribution over the stack is numerically estimated. After expressing the acoustic work flow, thermoacoustic flow, and energy loss per unit length in a single capillary duct by using the transverse functional variations, overall energy flow rate and energy balance are obtained for the whole capillary stack. The final expression for energy flow through the stack is numerically evaluated by varying physical parameters obtained from the sound field analysis. After confirming good agreements between predicted and experimental results for the interior sound field of a refrigerator model, the thermoacoustic characteristics of Hofler's apparatus is analyzed by the proposed method and it is observed that the results agree well with Hofler's experimental results.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.53-60
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• 1996

In this study, a design methodology for thermoacoustic refrigerator systems is proposed based on the thermal conduction and acoustic theories, and physical characteristics of an actual thermoacoustic refrigerator are investigated. Especially, the resonator is designed for minimizing the energy loss at cold end, and the position and length of the capillary stack are optimized in order to get a large temperature difference between hot and cold ends. Experimental results show that a maximun temperature difference of 22.7$^{\circ}$ and a temperature of 4.3$^{\circ}$C at cold end are obtained by supplying an electrical input of 33W without any thermal load at cold end.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.329-340
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• 1995

Basic refrigeration effect and efficiency of a thermoacoustic refrigerator is studied. The refrigerator model for numerical simulation is composed of half wavelength resonator and appropriate stack of plate. Theoretical model for thermoacoustic refrigeration suggested by Swift et. al is adapted for numerical calculation. The model contains arbitrary viscosity effect of the gas filled in the resonator. The wave equation is integrated by using 4-th order Runge-Kutta algorithm to give pressure distribution along the stack of plate. Heat flux and COP are also calculated based on the energy flux equation. By analyzing the numerical simulation results, optimum values of design parameters for thermoacoustic refrigerator are obtained.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.473-487
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• 1995

A loud speaker-driven zero-c.o.p. thermoacoustic refrigerator where an automotive catalytic converter is utilized as a stack has been fabricated and investigated experimentally. Without any heat exchangers at both ends of stack(and thus with zero c. o. p.), temperatures on the stack are measured and various heat transfer rates are calculated from the measured temperatures. Temperatures on the stack have been also calculated numerically using a finite difference method. The measured temperatures are in fair agreement with the calculated temperatures for lower frequency than 300Hz, however, the former deviates from the latter considerably for higher frequency. Two types of c. o. p. have been defined as appropriate to the experiment. While the nominal c. o. p. is zero(the condition in which the pumped heat flow rate in the pore exactly cancels the axial heat conduction down the stack), the true c. o. p. is found to be about 0.14 for 300Hz from the experiments.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.110-119
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• 1996

A numerical of thermoacoustic refrigerators has been developed. Effects of heat transfer and viscosity on pressure and velocity distributions in resonators and heat exchangers were considered. Predictions of cooling capacity and COP agreed well with previous experimental results. Effects of important design parameters, such as pressure ratio, spacing between the plates in the stack and stack length, on the performance of thermoacoustic refrigerators were shown.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.3-10
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• 1999

Investigations of temperature differences between both cnds of thermoacoustic exchanger generated by acoustic heat transport have been carried out as a function of the position of TAC(Thermo-Acoustic Couple)[1] in a 68-cm-long duct. Fixed with the electric power at 50W, measurements were compared with the theory changing the frequency from 150Hz to 300Hz with 10Hz step. The frequency-position dependent distribution of temperature difference corresponding to the Q-values was obtained with the numerical simulation. Through this distribution, the optimum position of the thermoacoustic exchanger and the optimum driving frequency can be determined.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.35-35
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.471-476
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• 2006

Thermoacoustic refrigerators are operated with acoustic power to pump heat. The acoustic standing wave displaces the gas In the channels of the stack while compressing and expanding. The thermal interaction between the osillating gas he surface of the stack generates an acoustic heat pumping. in this study, a thermoacoustic refrigerator is composed of a resonator of 4cm diameter, stack of plates, heat exchangers and cooling part. Length of the hot heat exchangers, the stack of plates and the cold heat exchanger are 9mm, 8mm and 6mm respectively. Using helium as a coolant at frequency of 516Hz, the cold-part temperature of exchanger fell to $-19.0^{\circ}C$ after 1hours.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.647-650
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• 2002

A thermoacoustic refrigerator, using a resonant standing acoustic wave, has been built. It employs a loudspeaker to sustain a standing wave in a resonance tube. The stack of plates is 0.075mm-thick plastic sheet(Mylar), spirally wound to make a 40mm-diameter assembly 80mm long. and two heat exchanger are installed. The refrigerant is Helium gas. The description of thermoacoustic refrigerator are presented. The directly measured performance of the resonator. Tc/Th ( temperature ratio ) and $COP/COP_{c}$, (normalized by carnot's COP ) are plotted versus the thermal load Q applied to the cold end, for various speaker power.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.229-234
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• 2001

The thermoacoustic refrigerator bas not only considerable possibility but also commercial usability, because it bas high reliability, lower vibration, no moving part, and can easily be constructed. In this study, the resonance characteristics of the thermoacoustic refrigerator were investigated for better performance, varying length of the resonance tube to 400mm, 500mm, 600mm, 700mm. In order to determine the optimum resonance tube length and the frequency, the $\lambda/4$ thermoacoustic engine and the similar apparatus of Wheatly type refrigerator were constructed. It was used air as a coolant. in the fifth harmonic, it was taken the highest ${\Delta}t$ that was $56.3^{\circ}C$ at 626Hz in 400mm tube with 40mm stack.