Numerical Study on a Looped Thermoacoustic Refrigerator with Multi-layered Mesh Screen Regenerators

Thermoacoustic refrigeration technology, known for its high reliability and significant environmental friendliness, relies heavily on the performance of the regenerator. To efficiently pump heat at different temperatures in the regenerator, a four-stage looped thermoacoustic refrigerator utilizing a multi-layered mesh regenerator is proposed and numerically simulated. The computational results indicate that the design of a multi-layered regenerator is conducive to ensuring efficient heat exchange while reducing viscous dissipation, thereby enhancing refrigeration capacity and efficiency. Among the investigated configurations, the system performance is most optimal with a three-layer mesh regenerator. Under the conditions of using 6 MPa high-pressure helium gas, a hot end temperature of 923 K, and a room temperature end of 303 K, the refrigeration system achieved a cooling capacity of 109 W at 77 K, surpassing the conditions with one, two and four-layer regenerators.