ASA 125th Meeting Ottawa 1993 May

1pPA12. Thermoacoustics of traveling waves.

Richard Raspet

Henry E. Bass

John Kordomenos

Phys. Acoust. Res. Group, Univ. of Mississippi, University, MS 38677

Standard thermoacoustic sources and refrigerators have the stack placed near one end in a standing wave tube. This selection of the stack position optimizes the thermoacoustic effect. For certain applications, however, the effect of a thermoacoustic stack on a traveling wave is of primary interest. Equations governing wave propagation through a thermoacoustic stack have been derived including equations for work flux. When the wave propagates in the direction of increasing temperature, the wave is amplified by an amount dependent upon the temperature gradient. Waves propagating in the opposite direction are attenuated. Counterpropagating waves in a standing wave tube encounter both. In this case, the results reduce to those developed earlier by Swift [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 84, 1145--1180 (1988)] and others. [Work supported by ONR.]