The effect of the excitation frequency of synthetic jet actuators on the mean jet velocity issuing from an array of circular orifices is investigated experimentally, focusing on the acoustic excitation characteristics of the actuator’s cavity. Two cavity configurations are considered. In the first configuration, synthetic jets are generated by exciting a single, large cavity having an array of sixteen orifices via sixteen piezoelectric elements. In the second configuration, the cavity volume of the first configuration is divided into eight isolated compartments, each with two orifices and two piezoelectric elements. Several distinct resonant peaks were observed in the frequency response of the synthetic jet actuator built with a single large-aspect-ratio cavity, whereas the case of compartmentalised cavities exhibited a single resonant peak. Acoustic simulations of the large-aspect-ratio-cavity volume showed that the multiple peaks in its frequency response correspond to the acoustic standing-wave mode shapes of the cavity. Due to its large aspect ratio, several acoustic mode shapes coexist in the excitation frequency range aside from the Helmholtz resonance frequency. When the actuator’s cavity volume is compartmentalised, only the Helmholtz resonance frequency is observed within the excitation frequency range.
A thermoacoustic heat engine (TAHE) converts heat into acoustic power with no moving parts. It exhibits several advantages over traditional engines, such as simple design, stable functionality, and environment-friendly working gas. In order to further improve the performance of TAHE, stack parameters need to be optimized. Stack’s position, length and plate spacing are the three main parameters that have been investigated in this study. Stack’s position dictates both the efficiency and the maximum produced acoustic power of the heat engine. Positioning the stack closer to the pressure anti-node might ensure high efficiency on the expense of the maximum produced acoustic power. It is noticed that the TAHE efficiency can further be improved by spacing the plates of the stack at a value of 2.4 of the thermal penetration depth, ςk . Changes in the stack length will not affect the efficiency much as long as the temperature gradient across the stack, as a ratio of the critical temperature gradient Γ, is more than 1. Upon interpreting the effect of these variations, attempts are made towards reaching the engine’s most powerful operating point.
The flow-excited acoustic resonance phenomenon is created when the flow instability oscillations are coupled with one of the acoustic modes, which in turn generates acute noise problems and/or excessive vibrations. In this study, the effect of the upstream edge geometry on attenuating these undesirable effects is investigated experimentally for flows over shallow rectangular cavity with two different aspect ratios of L/D = 1 and 1.67, where L is the cavity length and D is the cavity depth, and for Mach number less than 0.5. The acoustic resonance modes of the cavity are self-excited. Twenty four different upstream cavity edges are investigated in this study; including round edges, chamfered edges, vortex generators and spoilers with different sizes and configurations. The acoustic pressure is measured with a flush-mounted microphone on the cavity floor and the velocity fluctuation of the separated shear layer before the onset of acoustic resonance is measured with a hot-wire probe. The results for each upstream cavity edge are compared with the base case when square cavity edge is used. It is observed that when chamfered edges are used, the amplitude of the first acoustic resonance mode is highly intensified with values reaching around 5000 Pa (compared to 2000 Pa for the base case) and a clear shift in its onset of resonance to higher flow velocities is observed. Similar trend is observed when round edges are used. The amplitude of the generated pressure of the first acoustic resonance mode is amplified with values exceeding 4000 Pa and a delay in its onset of acoustic resonance is observed as well. Most of the spoiler edges are found to be effective in suppressing the pressure amplitude of the excited acoustic resonance. However, the performance of each spoiler depends on its specific geometry (i.e. thickness, height, and angle) relative to the cavity aspect ratio. A summary of the results is presented in this paper.
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