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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Fabrication, Operation and Flow Visualization in Surface-acoustic-wave-driven Acoustic-counterflow Microfluidics
Published on: August 27, 2013
An aeroacoustically driven thermoacoustic heat pump
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Avenue, Conway, Arkansas 72035-0001, USA.
Abstract:
The mean flow of gas in a pipe past a cavity can excite the resonant acoustic modes of the cavity--much like blowing across the top of a bottle. The periodic shedding of vortices from the leading edge of the mouth of the cavity feeds energy into the acoustic modes which, in turn, affect the shedding of the next vortex. This so-called aeroacoustic whistle can excite very high amplitude acoustic standing waves within a cavity defined by coaxial side branches closed at their ends. The amplitude of these standing waves can easily be 20% of the ambient pressure at optimal gas flow rates and ambient pressures within the main pipe. A standing wave thermoacoustic heat pump is a device which utilizes the in-phase pressure and displacement oscillations to pump heat across a porous medium thereby establishing, or maintaining, a temperature gradient. Experimental results of a combined system of aeroacoustic sound source and a simple thermoacoustic stack will be presented.
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