Modeling of thermoacoustic systems using the nonlinear frequency domain method

When modeling thermoacoustic (TA) devices at high amplitude, nonlinear effects such as time-average mass flows, and the generation of higher harmonics can no longer be neglected. Thus far, modeling these effects in TA devices required a generally computationally costly time integration of the nonlinear governing equations. In this paper, a fast one-dimensional nonlinear model for TA devices is presented, which omits this costly time integration by directly solving the periodic steady state. The model is defined in the frequency domain, which eases the implementation of phase delays due to viscous resistance and thermoacoustic heat exchange. As a demonstration, the model is used to solve an experimental standing wave thermoacoustic engine. The obtained results agree with experimental results, as well as with results from a nonlinear time domain model from the literature. The low computational cost of this model opens the possibility to do optimization studies using a nonlinear TA model.