Measurements with wire mesh stacks in thermoacoustic prime movers
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Authors
Reed, Mark Stephen
Subjects
Acoustics
Thermoacoustics
Thermoacoustic prime mover
Thermoacoustics prime mover stack
Thermoacoustics
Thermoacoustic prime mover
Thermoacoustics prime mover stack
Advisors
Hofler, Thomas J.
Atchley, Anthony A.
Date of Issue
1996-06
Date
June 1996
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
This thesis documents the first measurements of a thermoacoustic prime mover using wire mesh screens as the stack material. A thermoacoustic prime mover is a heat engine which converts thermal energy to sound. The stack material is sandwiched between the hot and cold heat exchanger and exchanges heat with the cycling gas elements flowing in the stack. The experimental stacks were constructed by inserting disks cut from wire mesh in a tube. In addition to simplicity, these stacks have two significant advantages. First, the wire is relatively impervious to moderately high temperatures and second, the effective thermal conductance of the structure is one to two orders of magnitude lower than a comparable metal 'parallel plate' structure. Since no linear theoretical thermoacoustic model exist for these wire mesh stacks, the approach taken was simply to measure the performance of several different mesh stacks. Results gathered from two different prime movers indicate acoustic onset temperatures and amplitude performance comparable to the best data for parallel plate stacks. Moreover, measured efficiencies for mesh stacks appear to be substantially higher than for parallel plates.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Department of Physics
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
58 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.