Thermoacoustic Stirling Heat Pump Working as a Heater

A prototype thermoacoustic heat pump working as a heater was demonstrated. The heat pump was composed of an acoustic driver, a branched tube, and a looped tube containing a regenerator; the looped tube was connected to the acoustic driver via the branched tube, and the regenerator consisted of many narrow flow channels. The measurement results of the acoustic impedance inside the looped tube indicated that the energy conversion of the acoustic power flow into the acoustic heat flow in the regenerator occurred through the inherently efficient Stirling cycle. Moreover, the heat pump generated a hot temperature of 370 °C, corresponding to a temperature lift along the regenerator of 340 °C.