Application of thermoacoustic effect to refrigeration

Thermoacoustic effect, as a subprocess of the photoacoustic effect, can also convert heat to acoustic wave by a thermoacoustic prime mover, and can also pump heat by acoustic wave in a thermoacoustic refrigerator. The present study focuses on a thermoacoustically driven pulse tube refrigerator, utilizing sound from a thermoacoustic prime mover to drive a pulse tube refrigerator. Experiments emphasize on the characteristics of both the thermoacoustic prime mover and the combined refrigeration system, including resonant frequency, onset temperature, pressure amplitude, and refrigeration temperature, etc. A cryogenic temperature lower than 120 K has been achieved from the present system. Much effort is also devoted to the influence of some working gases, such as helium-argon mixture, on the performance of the system. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.