Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Thermoacoustic Refrigerator, Nathan A. Hammond

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Thermoacoustic refrigerators have typically been designed to cool an isolated working fluid, necessitating a heat exchanging device to draw heat from the outside target fluid into the cooled working fluid. For example, a thermoacoustic refrigerator designed to chill air might utilize argon as an isolated working fluid, necessitating a heat exchanger to draw heat from the air to the argon. A second heat exchanger would be required to draw heat from the argon to a cold sink.

A design team at Utah State University has created a thermoacoustic refrigerator which uses air at atmospheric pressure as its working fluid. By …