Measurements with wire mesh stacks in thermoacoustic prime movers
By: Mark S. Reed
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 58
Description: This thesis documents the first measurements of a thermoacoustic prime mover using wire mesh screens as the stack material. A thermoacoustic prime mover is a heat engine which converts thermal energy to sound. The stack material is sandwiched between the hot and cold heat exchanger and exchanges heat with the cycling gas elements flowing in the stack. The experimental stacks were constructed by inserting disks cut from wire mesh in a tube. In addition to simplicity, these stacks have two significant advantages. First, the wire is relatively impervious to moderately high temperatures and second, the effective thermal conductance of the structure is one to two orders of magnitude lower than a comparable metal 'parallel plate' structure. Since no linear theoretical thermoacoustic model exist for these wire mesh stacks, the approach taken was simply to measure the performance of several different mesh stacks. Results gathered from two different prime movers indicate acoustic onset temperatures and amplitude performance comparable to the best data for parallel plate stacks. Moreover, measured efficiencies for mesh stacks appear to be substantially higher than for parallel plates.
Notes: Thesis advisor(s): Thomas J. Hofler, Anthony A. Atchley.

"June 1996."

Thesis (M.S. in Applied Physics) Naval Postgraduate School, June 1996.

Includes bibliographical references.

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

Also available online.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

US Navy (USN) author.

dk/dk cc:9996 12/17/96