Technical Paper
Use of Accurate Simulation Workflows to Optimize Waste Heat Recovery from Thermoacoustic Engines
2024-04-09
2024-01-2590
Thermoacoustic heat engines convert heat into useful energy by generating acoustic waves from a heat source that can then be extracted as useful work. These engines are inexpensive, robust, versatile, and capable of extracting energy from a wide variety of heat sources ranging from waste heat from power plants to exhaust heat of vehicles. In this article, our investigation focuses on using simulation workflows to improve the performance of thermoacoustic engines. We begin with validating the workflows with published data for both traveling wave and standing wave thermoacoustic engines. For traveling wave thermoacoustic engines, the geometry is a closed loop such as a torus and the acoustic waves propagate within the loop while for a standing wave thermoacoustic engine, the geometry is a straight tube where the acoustic waves are stationary waves oscillating between ends of the tube.