Loudpeaker Coupled as Linear Alternator To Thermoacoustic Engines

Abstract

Low grade energy biomass such as agricultural waste and other solid biomass can be easily and cheaply obtained in rural areas. This type of biomass can be used directly as heat source for thermoacoustic engines. A specific design of a thermoacoustic engine model has been created using the open source Delta EC simulation software. The engine's special design is on it’s hot heat exchanger section, which enables it to harnessed heat directly from flue gas flow of low grade biomass combustion. Further simulations are carried out so that the current engine model can be coupled with a loudspeaker model utilized as a linear alternator. This work managed to couple the thermoacoustic engine with the loudspeaker model in  both acoustically and electrically term and they are succesfully acting as a simple electric power generator model. The efficiency of heat to acoustic energy conversion is 30.71 W. A sum of 6.91 W acoustic energy flows to the loudspeaker, and converted into 5.70 W of electrical energy, which is equivalent to 82.54% of acoustic to electrical energy conversion the efficiency. Thus, the overall efficiency of the engine in converting heat into electric is 9.46%.Keywords: Biomass, Delta EC simulation, Electric power generator, Loudspeaker, Thermoacoustic engine