Study of a thermoacoustic‐Stirling engine

During the last decade most efforts in thermoacoustics have been focused on the development and understanding of the traveling‐wave thermoacoustic systems. These systems get much attention because they employ the inherently efficient Stirling cycle. This makes them much more efficient that the standing‐wave counter parts which are intrinsically irreversible. A 1 kW thermal power thermoacoustic‐Stirling engine is designed and performance measurements are performed. The engine incorporates a compact acoustic network to create the traveling‐wave phasing necessary to operate in a Stirling cycle. The acoustic network consists of a regenerator unit, an acoustic compliance and a feedback inertance. The design, construction and performance measurements of the traveling‐wave thermoacoustic engine will be presented and discussed.