scholarly journals Design of a Mechanical Resonator to Be Coupled to a Thermoacoustic Stirling-Engine

Author(s):  
M. E. H. Tijani ◽  
Srinivas Vanapalli ◽  
Simon Spoelstra

This paper describes the design of a mechanical resonator for a thermoacoustic Stirling-engine. The engine was previously run with a quarter-wavelength acoustic resonator. The advantage of the mechanical resonator is that it is compact and would dissipate less acoustic power. The mechanical resonator consists of a twin piston-spring assembly moving in opposite phase to cancel vibrations. The system uses flexure springs to suspend the piston in a cylinder leaving a narrow gap between them. The narrow gap acts as a dynamic seal between the fronts and back sides of the piston. Simulation calculations show that the mechanical resonator dissipates 40% less acoustic power than the acoustic one. This will lead to more useful acoustic power output from the thermoacoustic Stirling-engine. In addition, the size of the system is reduced considerably.

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Frank Simon ◽  
Delphine Sebbane ◽  
surname given-names

Passive acoustic liners, used in aeronautic engine nacelles to reduce radiated fan noise, have a quarter-wavelength behavior. The simplest systems are SDOF-type (single degree of freedom), consisting of a perforated sheet backed with a honeycomb, whose absorption ability is limited to frequencies near the Helmholtz frequency. Thus, to widen the absorption frequency range, manufacturers use a 2DOF (double degree of freedom) system, with an internal layer over another honeycomb (stack of two resonators). However, one constraint is the limited thickness of the overall system, which reduces the space allotted to each honeycomb. A possible approach, based on a previous concept called LEONAR (long elastic open-neck acoustic resonator), could be to link each perforated layer to hollow tubes inserted in each honeycomb layer, in order to shift resonance frequencies to lower frequencies by extending the air column lengths. The presence of an empty chamber on both sides of the internal perforated layer also allows the tube length to be increased through tubes crossing both cavities, preserving the liner thickness. The main aim of this article is to mathematically describe the principle of a 2DOF LEONAR and to show the relevance of the mathematical model through FEM simulations and experiments performed in an impedance tube. Moreover, its behavior is analyzed through a parametric study, in order to explore its potential for an aeronautic application. A remarkable feature of 2DOF LEONAR-type materials with insertion of bottom tubes in the higher cavity is the possibility of maintaining the low frequency band provided by the original LEONAR concept, while adding a second absorption peak at a higher frequency, by the second layer and the accompanying tubes. There is a fundamental difference from classical SDOF/2DOF resonators, for which the thicknesses are obviously different.


Author(s):  
D H Rix

This paper describes the design considerations that were involved in the production of a prototype Stirling engine, primarily intended for use in a domestic scale combined heat and power (CHP) system. These are discussed in terms of the specification of basic design parameters—configuration, working fluid, etc. First the particular requirements of this application are considered, primarily a power output of 1 kW or less, suitability for high-volume mass production, ultra long life and as high an efficiency as possible. The design that emerges is relatively simple, of low specific power output and with rather conservative operating parameters—temperature, pressure and speed.


The theory of sound generated aerodynamically is extended by taking into account the statistical properties of turbulent airflows, from which the sound radiated (without the help of solid boundaries) is called aerodynamic noise. The theory is developed with special reference to the noise of jets, for which a detailed comparison with experiment is made (§7 for subsonic jets, §8 for supersonic ones). The quadrupole distribution of part I (Lighthill 1952) is shown to behave (see §3) as if it were concentrated into independent point quadrupoles, one in each ‘average eddy volume’. The sound field of each of these is distorted, in favour of downstream emission, by the general downstream motion of the eddy, in accordance with the quadrupole convection theory of part I. This explains, for jet noise, the marked preference for downstream emission, and its increase with jet velocity. For jet velocities considerably greater than the atmospheric speed of sound, the ‘Mach number of convection’ M c may exceed I in parts of the jet, and then the directional maximum for emission from these parts of the jet is at an angle of sec -1 ( M c ) to the axis (§8). Although turbulence without any mean flow has an acoustic power output, which was calculated to a rough approximation from the expressions of part I by Proudman (1952) (see also § 4 below), nevertheless, turbulence of given intensity can generate more sound in the presence of a large mean shear (§ 5). This sound has a directional maximum at 45° (or slightly less, due to the quadrupole convection effect) to the shear layer. These results follow from the fact that the most important term in the rate of change of momentum flux is the product of the pressure and the rate of strain (see figure 2). The higher frequency sound from the heavily sheared mixing region close to the orifice of a jet is found to be of this character. But the lower frequency sound from the fully turbulent core of the jet, farther downstream, can be estimated satisfactorily (§7) from Proudman’s results, which are here reinterpreted (§5) in terms of sound generated from combined fluctuations of pressure and rate of shear in the turbulence. The acoustic efficiency of the jet is of the order of magnitude 10 -4 M 5 , where M is the orifice Mach number. However, the good agreement, as regards total acoustic power output, with the dimensional considerations of part I, is partly fortuitous. The quadrupole convection effect should produce an increase in the dependence of acoustic power on the jet velocity above the predicted U 8 law. The experiments show that (largely cancelling this) some other dependence on velocity is present, tending to reduce the intensity, at the stations where the convection effect would be absent, below the U 8 law. At these stations (at 90° to the jet) proportionality to about U 6.5 is more common. A suggested explanation of this, compatible with the existing evidence, is that at higher Mach numbers there may be less turbulence (especially for larger values of nd / U , where n is frequency and d diameter), because in the mixing region, where the turbulence builds up, it is losing energy by sound radiation. This would explain also the slow rate of spread of supersonic mixing regions, and, indeed, is not incompatible with existing rough explanations of that phenomenon. A consideration (§6) of whether the terms other than momentum flux in the quadrupole strength density might become important in heated jets indicates that they should hardly ever be dominant. Accordingly, the physical explanation (part I) of aerodynamic sound generation still stands. It is re-emphasized, however, that whenever there is a fluctuating force between the fluid and a solid boundary, a dipole radiation will result which may be more efficient than the quadrupole radiation, at least at low Mach numbers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 74 (11) ◽  
pp. 1271-1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Li ◽  
Andrew J. Laviage ◽  
Jeong Ho You ◽  
Yong-Joe Kim

1988 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Levine ◽  
F.G. Leppington

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document