Thermoacoustic Engine and Heat Pump
Application ID: 116071
A thermoacoustic engine is a device with no moving parts that can generate acoustic energy from temperature gradients within the engine. It uses the relationship between the movement of oscillating air and the temperature changes in the air compressed and expanded by the acoustic waves. A similar device has also been devised to generate a temperature gradient by acoustic energy, which is called a thermoacoustic heat pump.
This is a model to simulate a system which couples a standing-wave thermoacoustic engine to a heat pump. The cooling effect by the heat pump is reproduced using acoustic waves excited by the engine. The Simple Thermoacoustic Engine tutorial is used for the geometry of the engine section and simply mirrored for the heat pump section. From this model, it can be confirmed that the reproduction of the heat pump effect requires the consideration of nonlinear terms.
This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products:
however, additional products may be required to completely define and model it. Furthermore, this example may also be defined and modeled using components from the following product combinations:
- COMSOL Multiphysics® and
- Acoustics Module and
- either the Heat Transfer Module, or MEMS Module
The combination of COMSOL® products required to model your application depends on several factors and may include boundary conditions, material properties, physics interfaces, and part libraries. Particular functionality may be common to several products. To determine the right combination of products for your modeling needs, review the Specification Chart and make use of a free evaluation license. The COMSOL Sales and Support teams are available for answering any questions you may have regarding this.