A standing-wave thermoacoustic engine with gas-liquid coupling oscillation

Abstract

A thermoacoustic engine usually uses either gas or liquid as the working fluid. However, an analysis based on acoustic-electric analogy indicates that gas-liquid coupling oscillation may lead to lower resonant frequency and larger pressure amplitude. A standing-wave thermoacoustic engine containing a water column was fabricated and tested. Compared with the same apparatus using nitrogen gas, the introduction of a 1.5 kg water column resulted in a drop of resonant frequency by 79.0% and a rise of pressure amplitude by 157.4%, while for the case of helium gas, a drop by 91.4% and a rise by 208.3% were observed, respectively.