Designing Regenerators of Thermoacoustic Engines for Automotive Waste Heat Recovery 2020-01-0414

Extraction and utilization of automotive waste exhaust heat is an effective way to save fuel and protect the environment. One promising technology for this purpose is the thermoacoustic engine, where thermal energy is converted to mechanical energy in terms of high amplitude oscillations. The core component in a travelling-wave thermoacoustic engine is its regenerator where the process of energy conversion is mainly realized. This paper introduces a strategy for the design of the regenerator for applications in typical light- and heavy-duty vehicles. Starting from 1-D linear thermoacoustic theory, the nonlinear effects (given by the high amplitude oscillations) are modelled as acoustic resistances and introduced into the basic linear equations to estimate the nonlinear dissipations in the regenerator. Then, a few dimensionless parameters are derived by normalizing these thermoacoustic equations. This yields a good overview of how different design parameters such as the geometrical dimensions, operating temperature, and thermal boundary conditions influence the performance of the regenerator. For the application of automotive waste heat recovery, the thermal properties of the actual exhaust gas are accepted to be the boundary condition for the heat matching. The results obtained in the current work show that the optimum designs for the regenerators in travelling-wave thermoacoustic engines aimed at light- and heavy-duty applications widely differ due to the different thermal properties of their exhaust gas. Finally, two possible optimal designs of the regenerators in travelling-wave thermoacoustic engines for the typical light- and heavy-duty applications are presented. The designs are based on heat matching between the required heat by the regenerators and the available heat from the exhaust gases.