4TH International Congress on Technology - Engineering & SCIENCE - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia (2017-08-05)

Study On Self-excited Thermoacoustic Engines Equipped With Thermally Inductive Porous Media
Of all the heat engines without involving combustion processes, the self-excited thermoacoustic engine with alternate-current generator is of the simplest mechanism and largest power rating. However, this type of engines is still too sensitive to working temperature, so active control has been usually applied for wider range of working frequencies. Additional electricity is thus needed, and the net power harvest is then reduced. To remedy such a situation, this paper provides a more reliable and energy-efficient method: equip self-excited engines with thermally inductive porous media. Such engine can start running in a wide range of working temperatures, and the power rating thereof is monotonically increasing with the thermal inertia of the porous medium with compressible air inside, which is sensitive to the (effective) porosity of a chosen material. To this new design, we developed a fast-time heat-flux sensor to identify the sound-to-heat dynamics and to quantify thermal inertia of porous media.
Boe-Shong Hong, Yu-Ming Huang, Mei-Hung Wu