Feng Wu¹, Chih Wu², Fangzhong Guo³, Qing Li⁴ and Lingen Chen⁵

¹ Department of Physics, Wuhan Institute of Chemical Technology, Wuhan, 430073, China.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402, U.S.A.
Tel. +1 410-293-6512; Fax +1-410-293-2591; E-mail: [email protected]
³ School of Energy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁴ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, BeiJing 100080, China.
⁵ Faculty 306, Naval academy of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, China.

Received: 28 November 2002 / Accepted: 9 September 2003 / Published: 31 December 2003

Abstract: Heat transfer between a thermoacoustic engine and its surrounding heat reservoirs can be out of phase with oscillating working gas temperature. The paper presents a generalized heat transfer model using a complex heat transfer exponent. Both the real part and the imaginary part of the heat transfer exponent change the power versus efficiency relationship quantitatively. When the real part of the heat transfer exponent is fixed, the power output P decreases and the efficiency η increases along with increasing of the imaginary part. The Optimization zone on the performance of the thermoacoustic heat engine is obtained. The results obtained will be helpful for the further understanding and the selection of the optimal operating mode of the thermoacoustic heat engine.

Keywords: thermoacoustic engine; complex heat transfer exponent; optimization zone.