Oscillating flow of a heat-conducting fluid in a narrow tube (Q4354043)

Thermoacoustic refrigeration occurs in periodic flows in a duct with heat transfer within the fluid and to the tube. This study is concerned with oscillating flows with large pressure fluctuations and large energy exchanges in the presence of large temperature differences. The analysis considers non-acoustically resonant flows, i.e. frequencies lower than acoustic, and in doing so, succeeds in determining the limit cycles where linear theory fails. The key difference is in the scaling of the problem, with the oscillating frequencies being lower than acoustics ones. The theory accounts for forced oscillation at both ends of the tube; their frequency is no longer an eigenvalue but a parameter entering the problem. The limitations are that the duct diameter is smaller than the heat penetration depth, and the thermal mass of duct wall is large. The author presents a closed-form perturbation solution to the two-dimensional viscous flow problem in a cylindrical tube with heat transfer in both the fluid and on the tube walls. Periodic flows with large pressure oscillations are imposed as boundary conditions. The perturbation solution determines the enthalpy flux and the longitudinal temperature profile in the periodic regime. Results are presented for two configurations: tube one end closed, and with both ends open. In the first case, a temperature singularity occurs at the closed end, and the temperature profile is the same as for small pressure amplitudes. In tubes open at both ends, when the mass flow rates at the ends are of opposite phases, a temperature singularity occurs inside the tube where the velocity remains zero throughout the period.