Numerical simulation of a thermoacoustic refrigerator. I: Unsteady adiabatic flow around the stack (Q1815965)

A low Mach-number compressible flow model for the simulation of acoustically driven flow in a thermoacoustic stack is constructed. The model is based on the assumption that the acoustic wavelength is much larger than the characteristic hydrodynamic lengthscale. A simplified version of the model is applied to analyze unsteady flow in the neighborhood of an idealized thermoacoustic stack which consists of a periodic array of thin plates placed in an acoustic standing wave. Computed results are used to analyze, for different stack configurations, the nonlinear response of the flow to different acoustic driving amplitudes and frequencies.