Research on engineering technology of compact thermoacoustic air conditioner for vehicles

Thermoacoustic refrigeration technology presents a promising solution for sustainable and efficient air conditioning in vehicles. However, traditional thermoacoustic systems typically employ rigid resonant tubes, which pose challenges in terms of assembly and spatial layout during experimentation. Additionally, electric heating is predominantly utilized as the heat source in most experimental setups. To address the need for compact thermoacoustic air conditioning systems suitable for vehicle applications, this paper introduces the concept of employing flexible resonant tubes in heat-driven thermoacoustic refrigeration systems. Our study begins by constructing a heat-driven thermoacoustic refrigeration platform designed to simulate real automotive exhaust conditions. The DeltaEC software is employed to optimize the design of each component within the system. Both flexible and rigid resonant tubes are used in experimental research. Our findings reveal that the pressure amplitudes measured from experiments using both types of tubes closely match the simulated sound field. Operating at 8.7 MPa, the cooling capacity of the thermoacoustic system with flexible tube is 3.4 kW at 10 ℃. Using more gentle bending of flexible resonant tubes can reduce small losses caused by bending in rigid resonant tubes. Consequently, under similar working conditions, the cooling capacity generated by the system employing flexible resonant tubes slightly exceeds that of systems employing rigid resonant tubes. Furthermore, our study demonstrates a thermoacoustic conversion efficiency of 20.8 % and a refrigerator refrigeration efficiency of 2.34. These findings provide empirical validation for the use of flexible resonant tubes within vehicle exhaust heat-driven thermoacoustic refrigeration systems. The experimental results clearly demonstrate the ability of vehicle exhaust as a heat source to provide heat for thermoacoustic systems, and the ability of flexible thermoacoustic systems to generate sufficient cooling capacity. Ultimately, this research contributes to the advancement and practical implementation of thermoacoustic air conditioning within vehicles.