Thermoacoustic Refrigerator

The research focus of the Thermoacoustics Laboratory is the study of acoustically driven heat transport. Our goals include an improved understanding of fundamental thermoacoustic processes and the development of new thermoacoustic refrigerators and heat engines with increased power density, temperature span, and efficiency, and the commercialization of those devices. The Thermoacoustics Laboratory at ARL provides the infrastructure to support research on the basic processes required to understand this emerging, environmentally friendly refrigeration technology. This facility also supports the fabrication and testing required to produce complete, full-scale operational prototype refrigeration systems for military and commercial applications such as food refrigerators/freezers and air conditioners.

These prototypes have been flown on the Space Shuttle and have been used to cool radar electronics onboard a U.S. Navy warship. Thermoacoustic refrigerators with cooling powers ranging from a few watts to chillers with cooling capacities in excess of 10 kW are currently in operation or under construction.

Our research and development efforts benefit from the following in-house facilities:

• Acoustic gas mixture analysis
• Primary standard (reciprocity) microphone and accelerometer calibration
• Pressure vessel test manifold
• Custom transducer signal conditioning electronics fabrication
• DELTAE thermoacoustic computer design codes
• Precision acoustic power flow measurement system
• Heat flow calibration and measurement system

NOTE: The Physical Acoustics Group maintains a web site at: http://www.acs.psu.edu/thermoacoustics.html