An experimental analysis of a stand-alone standing-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator

In the last years, the thermoacoustic phenomena had intensified the scientific community’s interest due to its implications in thermodynamics, heat transfer, and acoustic matters that make possible the conversion between sound and heat. This work is aimed at exploring the Russell-Weibull refrigerator, analyzing the behavior of the different parts in order to achieve a good level of thermal separation, together with the capability of working as stand-alone. Special attention was given to all those parts that need to be designed properly with explanation of the physics that ruled them, such as sound generator, woofer box, stack, and tube insulation. In the second part of the work, the results obtained are discussed, consistently showing that, if some expedients are adopted, this simple refrigerator can achieve a temperature difference of 24°C. The design choices concerning materials and geometries are shown to be of great influence on the device behavior.