Design a two-stage looped-tube thermoacoustic cooler for thermal management of enclosures

Design options for a travelling wave thermoacoustic refrigerator have been considered with the view of using it for thermal management of various enclosures/compartments. Acoustic drivers such as loudspeakers or linear motors are essential for such thermoacoustic devices as they enable the conversion of electrical to acoustic power. The theoretical knowledge of how to couple an acoustic driver to thermoacoustic refrigerators or engines efficiently has been illustrated by studying the performance of an acoustic driver when connected to selected types of acoustic networks using DeltaEC. A final design comprising a two-stage refrigerator (two thermoacoustic cores in series) driven by two acoustic drivers (model 1S132, available from Q-Drive) has been presented together with the discussion regarding acoustic matching. The overall efficiency (electricity to cooling power) has reached nearly 125% when the temperature difference between the cold and ambient heat exchanger is 25 K to produce 447 W of cooling power.