Cryogenics 387 (1998) 813–822
1998 Cryogenic Association of Japan. Published by Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved
PII: S0011-2275(98)00055-1
Printed in Great Britain
0011-2275/98/$—see front matter
Experimental research of thermoacoustic
prime mover1
Shuliang Zhou* and Yoichi Matsubara
Atomic Energy Research Institute, Nihon University, 7-24-1 Narashinodai, Funabashi
274, Japan
Received 24 February 1998
Measurements of thermoacoustic prime movers with stacks made of copper wire
mesh are presented. The resonance frequencies are below 100 Hz, which are useful
to drive pulse tube refrigerators. Onset temperature and resonance frequency were
studied. It is found that under certain conditions the second harmonic component
becomes dominant and the prime mover essentially works on the second mode, which
should be avoided. The influence of gas properties, frequency, mean pressure, mesh
size and stack length on the overall performance were measured and expressed in
terms of normalized input power, heater temperature and pressure amplitude. A
maximum output of 26 W from the thermoacoustic prime mover was achieved with
the frequency, input power and heater temperature 73 Hz, 833 W and 700 K respect-
ively. 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Keywords: thermoacoustic prime mover; stack; pulse tube; pressure oscillation
Sound waves in gas are usually expressed in terms of oscil-
lation of displacement and pressure. Actually, temperature
oscillations also exist together with pressure oscillations.
The thermal effect between oscillating fluids and the solid
surfaces causes a thermoacoustic effect1. Utilizing this
effect, heat flow can be converted to work flow by a ther-
moacoustic prime mover, while the opposite process can
be achieved by a thermoacoustic refrigerator.
Some thermoacoustic effects have attracted attention for
over two centuries. But a quantitatively accurate under-
standing was not achieved until Rott’s2 studies, which has
been confirmed experimentally by Yazaki et al.3,4 To