DC Flow Investigations in Thermoacoustic Prime Mover

In thermoacoustic device, the nonlinear phenomena are the source of secondary flows superimposed on the oscillating flow. To date, the acoustic streaming have been only characterized for progressive and standing waves in current systems. A method to characterize theoretically the secondary flows in thermoacoustic systems with more complex geometries is developed in this paper. This method is applied in the case of an annular thermoacoustic prime mover. The streaming fields are then provided. As the determination of the streaming fields requires the knowledge of the first order acoustic parameters, a linear model is used. The theoretical results of the acoustic pressure are compared to the experimental data. A relative error less than 10% is obtained, allowing the validation of the linear model.Copyright © 2011 by ASME