The aim of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a simple and cheap cascade thermoacoustic engine for the purposes of refrigerator, electricity generation, which would be practical use in the rural communities. Here, the applications to the refrigerator and electricity generation will be not investigated in this stage. Therefore, the objectives of this project are to design, construct and experimentally evaluate only a demonstrated cascade thermoacoustic engine as describe as follows.
- The cascade thermoacoustic engine is preferred in this project because the straight-line configuration is easier to build than the toroidal topology, and the circulating second-order mass flow, referred to as Gedeon streaming, which can reduce the efficiency is automatically prevented. This proposed cascade thermoacoustic engine will be designed based on a linear thermoacoustic theory of Rott [1-3].
- The cascade thermoacoustic engine will be constructed with restrictions of low cost device and the technological simplicity by using the local materials and manufacturing skills. This thermoacoustic device consists of a standing wave thermoacoustic engine and a travelling wave thermoacoustic engine in series. The details of construction rely on a numerical analysis to select the specific dimensions and the practical fabrication constraints.
- The cascade thermoacoustic engine will be experimentally evaluated in terms of the overall efficiency of device by measuring the acoustic power produced and thermal supplied. The simplest and reliable method for determining the acoustic power is the RC load method which will be attached to the end of the cascade engine.
