Abstract
A miniature thermoacoustic prime mover, consuming heat to radiate sound, may be considered as a potential way of heat management in microcircuits because of its simplicity and stability. A prototype with variable resonant tube length of 10 to 25 cm was built, and experiments were carried out to observe its performance, such as onset temperature, oscillation amplitude and operating frequency. The results with atmospheric air showed that proper structures and operating conditions can make the system start an oscillation at a temperature lower than 100 °C, which proves the feasibility of potential usage in electronic units. The influences of stack position, heat input power or tube inclination on the oscillation amplitude, onset temperature and operating frequency are also presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Backhaus, S., Swift, G.W., 1999. A thermoacoustic-stirling heat engine. Nature, 399(6734):335–338. [doi:10.1038/20624]
Bastyr, K.J., Keolian, R.M., 2003. High-frequency thermoacoustic-stirling heat engine demonstration device. Acoustics Research Letters Online, 4(2):37–40. [doi:10.1121/1.1558931]
Chen, G.B., Jin, T., 1999. Experimental investigation on the onset and damping behavior in the thermoacoustic oscillation. Cryogenics, 39(10):843–846. [doi:10.1016/S0011-2275(99)00099-5]
Garrett, S.L., Adeff, J.A., Hofler, T.J., 1993. Thermoacoustic refrigerator for space applications. J. of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, 7(4):595–599.
Garrett, S.L., Chen, R.L., 2000. Build an ‘Acoustic Laser’. Echoes, 10(3):4–5.
Hofler, T.J., Adeff, J.A., 2001. A Miniature Thermoacoustic Refrigerator for ICs. Proceedings of 17th International Congress on Acoustics, Roma, 4B.02.01.
Jin, T., Fan, L., Wang, B.R., Chen, G.B., 2004. PZT driven miniature thermoacoustic refrigerator. Journal of Engineering Thermophysics, 25(5):776–778 (in Chinese).
Liu, Y.C., 2004. Study on the Miniaturization of Thermoacoustic Refrigerator. Ph.D. Thesis, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China (in Chinese).
Symko, O.G., Abdel-Rahman, E., Kwon, Y.S., Emmi, M., Behunin, R., 2004. Design and development of high-frequency thermoacoustic engines for thermal management in microelectronics. Microelectronics Journal, 35(2):185–191. [doi:10.1016/j.mejo.2003.09.017]
Tsai, C.L., Chen, R.L., Chen, C.L., DeNatale, J., 2002. Micro-machined Stack Component for Miniature Thermoacoustic Refrigerator. Proc. of 15th IEEE International Conference on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, Piscataway, NJ, p.149–151.
Zhou, S.L., Matsubara, Y., 1998. Experimental research of thermoacoustic prime mover. Cryogenics, 38(8):813–822. [doi:10.1016/S0011-2275(98)00055-1]
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Project supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (No. 50536040), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2005038280), and the Natural Sciences Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. Y104326), China
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jin, T., Zhang, Bs., Tang, K. et al. Experimental observation on a small-scale thermoacoustic prime mover. J. Zhejiang Univ. - Sci. A 8, 205–209 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.2007.A0205
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.2007.A0205