Impact of Ceramic Substrates Geometry on the Performance of Simple Thermo-Acoustic Engines

This work experimentally examines the influence of the stack geometry and position on the performance of thermo-acoustic engines (TAE). Twenty cordierite honeycomb ceramic stacks with square pores and five different lengths (7, 13, 17, 22 and 25 mm) were considered. Measurements were taken at seven different locations of the stack hot ends from the pressure antinode (closed end), namely 52, 72, 92,112, 132, 152 and 172 mm respectively. The temperature difference across the stack and radiated sound pressure level at steady state are considered indicators of the performance of the device. The results obtained with a simple standing wave thermo-acoustic engine used in this experiment reveals that the relationships between the length, the stack pores sizes and the input power are non-linear. In addition, the effect of the viscous resistance and the thermal losses were confirmed to be strong enough when the input heating power is low.