An inexpensive (less than $25) tabletop thermoacoustic refrigerator for demonstration purposes was built from a boxed loudspeaker, acrylic tubing and sheet, a roll of 35 mm film, fishing line, an aluminum plug, and two homemade thermocouples. Temperature differences of more than 15 °C were achieved after running the cooler for several minutes. While nowhere near the efficiency of devices described in the literature, this demonstration model effectively illustrates the behavior of a thermoacoustic refrigerator.
REFERENCES
1.
G. W.
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S. L.
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G. W. Swift, Thermoacoustics: A unifying perspective for some engines and refrigerators, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1999, fourth draft ed., pp. 15–22, available for downloading as a (large) PDF file from http://www.lanl.gov/thermoacoustics/book.html
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G. W.
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Optimus XTS 40 loudspeakers (4-inch, 150–18 000 Hz) are available from Radio Shack (Catalog No. #40-1991). They are quite often on sale for under $10.00.
6.
T. Hofler, Ph.D. thesis, Physics Department, University of California at San Diego, Appendix C, 1986.
7.
G. W. Swift, “Thermoacoustic engines,” in Encyclopedia of Acoustics, edited by M. J. Crocker (Wiley, New York, 1997), pp. 695–701.
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J.
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© 2002 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2002
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