Abstract:
A stability and transport analysis is performed for a simplified model of a strongly coupled thermoacoustic prime mover stack in an annular resonator. The result demonstrates that, even in the limit that other flow impedances of the resonator and stack can be ignored, there is a thermal impedance mismatch created in the boundary region at the ends of the stack. This can cause the gain predicted for the wave traversing the interior of the stack to differ significantly from the gain that drives sound in the resonator. The analysis is used to derive scaling relations between the heat and mass transport around the annulus, and to show how different scaling regimes relate to the maximum sound intensity that the stack can induce in the absence of other losses.