Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
On the Compatibility Between Numerical Model and Experiment of a Thermoacoustic Heat Exchanger
Submission Author:
Geovane Costa Clemente , SP
Co-Authors:
Geovane Costa Clemente, Flávio Bannwart
Presenter: Geovane Costa Clemente
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1964
Abstract
Thermoacoustics studies the coupling phenomenon between heat fluxes and the oscillatory motion of resonant acoustic particles. Thermoacoustic engines achieve the spontaneous conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy in the form of acoustics, which can then be converted into electrical energy. One advantage is their ability to regenerate low-availability thermal energy compared to conventional engines. Recent research aims to enhance this regeneration potential, focusing primarily on the heat rejection efficiency of the acoustic fluid in the engine. The objective of this work is to design a heat exchanger that maximizes the transfer of heat from the air in an acoustic regime to a refrigerant fluid affected by magnetic field interference, aiming for thermal coupling between their oscillations. For this purpose, a laminar 3D numerical model representing the heat exchanger of a stationary wave thermoacoustic engine was developed using ANSYS Fluent 2022R2 and will be validated through a corresponding experiment using water as the refrigerant fluid at room temperature, seeking compatibility between both approaches. Both experimental and numerical results indicated a model consistent with the physical phenomenon for air in free flow, and a satisfactory computational model when analyzing the oscillatory motion of acoustic particles in the air. Moreover, a greater thermal exchange effectiveness was detected for a tube with an elliptical section compared to a tube with a circular section of the same internal area.
Keywords
thermoacoustics, thermoacoustics engine, Heat transfer, CFD, thermomagnetism, standing wave
