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.