Numerical study of the influence of the convective heat transport on acoustic streaming in a standing wave

Within this work, acoustic streaming in an air-filled cylindrical resonator with walls supporting a temperature gradient is studied by means of numerical simulations. A set of equations based on successive approximations is derived from the Navier-Stokes equations. The equations take into account the acoustic-streaming-driven convective heat transport; as time-averaged secondary-field quantities are directly calculated, the equations are much easier to integrate than the original fluid-dynamics equations. The model equations are implemented and integrated employing commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics. Numerical calculations are conducted for the case of a resonator with a wall-temperature gradient corresponding to the action of a thermoacoustic effect. It is shown that due to the convective heat transport, the streaming profile is considerably distorted even in the case of weak wall-temperature gradients. The numerical results are consistent with available experimental data. (C) 2018 Acoustical Society of America.