Thermoacoustic Oscillations in Resonators

Abstract

Thermoacoustic processes involve heat and sound interactions. Their appearances and applications range from combustion instabilities to novel refrigerators and imaging techniques. The focus of this paper is on thermoacoustic oscillations occurring in gases inside chambers. The conversion of heat to sound energy in resonators generally requires in-phase fluctuations of acoustic pressure and heat addition, whereas in specially designed systems the supplied sound can pump heat along solid surfaces from low to high temperature regions. Fundamentals, investigation methods, and some applications of thermoacoustic oscillating phenomena in resonators are reviewed in this paper.