Experimental investigation of a thermoacoustic refrigerator driven by a standing wave twin thermoacoustic prime mover

• Setup of TAR driven by twin TAPM is fabricated and tested.
• Performance is measured by varying different stack materials and different spacing.
• Hot end temperature of refrigerator's stack & temperature difference is measured.
• Hot end temperature was higher for photographic film with 0.4 mm spacing.
• Higher temperature difference was obtained for Mylar sheet with 0.4 mm spacing.

The objective of this study is to analyse the performance of thermoacoustic refrigerator (TAR) measured in terms of hot end temperature and temperature difference across refrigerator stack with two different spacing namely 0.4 mm and 0.8 mm and stack used in refrigerating section was made of low thermal conductivity materials namely Mylar sheet and photographic film & the experiments were carried out at 1 MPa pressure using helium as working fluid. High powered acoustic wave with frequency of 460 Hz and pressure amplitude of ≅≅0.07 MPa was obtained from twin thermoacoustic prime mover (TAPM) and this acoustic wave produced temperature difference of 16 °C across the Mylar sheet stack made of 0.4 mm spacing in refrigerator section. From this study, it has been inferred that twin TAPM can act as efficient drive for TAR.

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