Tetsushi Biwa

A pistonless Stirling cooler

We demonstrate a prototype acoustic cooler that uses Stirling cycles executed by a traveling wave with high acoustic impedance thermoacoustically induced in a looped tube. The tube has no moving parts, only a pair of stacks sandwiched between two heat exchangers: one amplifies the acoustic power and the amplified wave supplies the driving energy to pump heat directly within the second stack. Because it uses extremely simple hardware consisting of a few parts, the cooling device is potentially a powerful tool for applications such as conventional cooling systems.

Measurements of acoustic streaming in a looped-tube thermoacoustic engine with a jet pump

This paper reports on the acoustic streaming in a looped-tube thermoacoustic prime mover equipped with an asymmetric constriction called a jet pump. The time-averaged mass flow velocity was determined using visualization methods and using acoustic field measurements. It was demonstrated that the magnitude and the direction of the velocity were dependent on the orientation of the jet pump. From the observed velocities, we estimated the heat carried away from the hot heat exchanger by the mass flow. It was shown that the heat loss was decreased from 30 W to 6.5 W by reversing the orientation of the jet pump, when the input heat power supplied to the prime mover was 100 W. The influence of the acoustic streaming was also studied from the cooling temperature of the looped-tube cooler.

Acoustic field in a thermoacoustic Stirling engine having a looped tube and resonator

S. Backhaus and G. W. Swift [Nature 399, 335(1999)] have built a prototype thermoacoustic Stirling engine based on traveling wave energy conversions, and demonstrated that its efficiency reached above 40% of the Carnot efficiency. We experimentally investigate an acoustic field in the engine through simultaneous measurements of velocity U and pressure P. By focusing on the phase lead Φ of U relative to P in its regenerator, we find that the engine can achieve such a high efficiency by the negative Φ about −20° rather than a traveling wave phase (Φ=0).

Work flow measurements in a thermoacoustic engine

Heat flow and work flow are the basic concepts in thermoacoustic phenomena, both of which are introduced by the thermal interaction between the oscillating fluid and solid component. We have developed an experimental technique to determine the work flow in a thermoacoustic device and applied it to a thermoacoustic engine consisting of a looped tube and a resonator. We have found that the reliable determination of the work flow requires the proper evaluation of various correction terms, including the time lag involved in the pressure and the velocity measurements of the oscillating fluid.

Low temperature differential thermoacoustic Stirling engine

To what extent can we lower the critical temperature ratio (CTR) necessary to start a thermoacoustic engine? We present an experimental method for predicting the CTR before the temperature ratio arrives at it using quality factor measurements. Based on the experimental quality factors, we tried to decrease the CTR of a thermoacoustic Stirling engine consisting of a looped tube and a branch resonator. Installation of the multiple regenerators at suitable positions can markedly enhance acoustic power production while overcoming energy dissipation. Results show that the CTR is decreased from 1.76 to 1.19 using five differentially heated regenerators.

How to build a loaded thermoacoustic engine

This paper presents an experimental method to predict the operating point of a looped tube thermoacoustic engine combined with an acoustic load. The thermoacoustic engine is divided into two subsystems, one containing the loop and the other containing the load. Their respective acoustic impedances are individually measured using an acoustic driver. Results show that the operating temperature difference and frequency of the loaded engine can be obtained from the measured impedances, before actually combining the subsystems. Furthermore, through measurements of the acoustic power distribution, the frequency best suited to extract the acoustic power from the engine subsystem is identified. Analyzing the subsystems offers a useful method to build a thermoacoustic engine with the desired performance.

Synchronization of a thermoacoustic oscillator by an external sound source

Since the pioneering work of Christiaan Huygens on the sympathy of pendulum clocks, synchronization phenomena have been widely observed in nature and science. In this paper, we describe a simple experiment, with a thermoacoustic oscillator driven by a loudspeaker, which exhibits several aspects of synchronization. Both the synchronization region of leading order around the oscillators natural frequency f0 and regions of higher order (around f0∕2 and f0∕3) are measured as functions of the loudspeaker voltage and frequency. We also show that increasing the coupling between the loudspeaker and the oscillator gives rise under some circumstances to the death of self-sustained oscillations (quenching). Moreover, two additional set of experiments are performed: the first investigates a feedback loop in which the signal captured by the microphone is delivered to the loudspeaker through a phase-shifter; the second investigates the nontrivial interaction between the loudspeaker and the oscillator when the latter a...

Observation of traveling thermoacoustic shock waves (L)

Shock waves were explored in the thermoacoustic spontaneous gas oscillations occurring in a gas column with a steep temperature gradient. The results show that a periodic shock occurs in the traveling wave mode in a looped tube but not in the standing wave mode in a resonator. Measurements of the harmonic components of the acoustic intensity reveal a clear difference between them. The temperature gradient acts as an acoustic energy source for the harmonic components of the shock wave in the traveling wave mode but as an acoustic energy sink of the second harmonic in the standing wave mode.

Work flux density measurements in a pulse tube engine

A heat engine called a pulse tube engine has been recently proposed, which consists of only a few parts, namely, differentially heated stacked metal meshes in a cylinder and one piston, coupled to a flywheel. We built the prototype engine and tested its working mechanism from the standpoint of a thermoacoustic framework. We measured the work flux density distribution over the cross section of the pulse tube to elucidate the work source of the engine. This engine belongs to the standing wave engine group and the work source resides not in the stacked metal meshes but in the pulse tube.

Acoustic intensity measurement in a narrow duct by a two-sensor method

The use of two pressure sensors [Fusco et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91, 2229 (1992)] makes it possible to determine the acoustic intensity of a gas column in a duct, but the application of this method was limited to wide ducts. In this letter, the formulation of the method is modified to include narrow ducts where the duct radius is as small as the viscous boundary layer thickness of the gas. The validity of this method is shown by comparison with the direct measurements of the pressure and velocity.