Running head: ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Electromagnetically Driven
Heat Pump or Cooler

Name of the student:

Name of University

Author note

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Table of Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Research Aim and Objectives..........................................................................................................6
Methodology....................................................................................................................................6
Illustration of the heat pumps 10
Experimental setup........................................................................................................................13
Experimental Results.....................................................................................................................13
Project planning and Schedule.......................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................18

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Executive summary
The most novel and effective ways of utilization of fossil fuel resources are by use of
electrically driven Thermo-acoustic Pumps. This process not only generates more power
compared to the conventional way of generation of energy but also reduces the harmful effect of
burning the fossil fuel. The process effectively reduces the energy requirement for distillation, by
reduction of energy for removal and supplying the required heat to the distillation process used
for separation of the components. The major advantages of the electromagnetic heat pump are
the operational temperature and the efficiency; the system is capable of being operated at the
temperature at which the distillation column works and is capable of providing the desired boost
to the temperature whenever needed in a single step. Conventional heat pump, on the other hand,
does the same task, but the affectivity is mush lesser, they can only provide a poor temperature
boost compared to the experimental system. The commercial production of the system has not
yet started and once into the commercial phase; it is set to change the way the distillation process
works.
This review contains the results and its analysis those were obtained from the
experiments performed upon the heat or cold pump system in the laboratory. For the experiment,
the device was constructed in laboratory based upon thermo-acoustic technology. The
temperature for the condenser had been set in such a way that the prototype resembles the real
distillation column. The temperature of the distillation column varies in the range of 50C to
80C. The temperature boost given by the pump can be 50C. The pump has been powered by a
linear electrically driven motor with a rating of 300W. The intention behind the implementation
of the project is to check the workability and viability of such heat pumps. For the preparation of

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

the report, varied literature has been referred and reviewed for gathering information on
electromagnetically driven thermo acoustic pumps. This report contains the detailed description
regarding the setup implemented in the laboratory for experimentation.

Introduction
In distillation processes, the major energy is consumed for separating the products into
various components, and according to the thermodynamics, the 40% of energy spent on
distillation makes a process extremely inefficient. In the process of distillation the liquid or the
primary fluid is boiled, since the majority of heat that has been gained by the fluid is lost during
the initial phases of condensation, hence this heat could be used again for the column (Yu et al.
2007). In conventional systems, the heat is reutilized with the help of compression heat pumps
and the range of temperature increase that could be achieved through the pump is in the range of
10C - 20C. The energy that has been extracted is not very effective as this range of temperature
cant be effectively used for a distillation process. Hence this problem could be sorted out with
the help of thermo-acoustic pumps. The thermo-acoustic pumps are capable of raising the
temperature of the system by 100C. Using the heat pumps in a distillation process can help in
saving a lot of energy and will help in reduction of the harmful gas (carbon dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide, etc.) emission by the plant thus help in reducing the carbon footprint of the plant (Luo et
al. 2006). Advantages that accompany the usage of the thermo-acoustic pumps are:
1. The working temperature is relatively higher.
2. The temperature boost that can be provided by the thermo-acoustic pumps is much higher
compared to the conventional pumps.
3. The thermo-acoustic pumps are environment-friendly compared to the conventional ones.
4. The modern pumps are more reliable and have a longer operational life compared to the
conventional pumps as it involves no moving parts.

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

5. The modern pump goes easy on installation and maintenance.
The intention behind the development of the modern acoustic pumps is to use the heat and
energy that is released and lost during distillation. The use of energy, released during the process
will help in saving energy which will have a deep impact on the ecosystem (Widyaparaga et al.
2011).
The report has been divided into following sections, section 2 deals with literature review
regarding the subject, section 3 contains the aims and the objective that is driving the project,
section 4 presents the adopted methodology for successful project, section 5 deal with the setup
that has been implemented in laboratory for experimentation and data generation and section 6
finally discusses the results obtained from the process.

Literature Review
The texts on the thermo-acoustic pump explain the system as a device which implements
the high amplitude acoustic waves for transferring the heat energy from a place to another, since
the transfer is through sound the losses are not too large.
According to S. Spolestra (2005), thermo-acoustics is the physical phenomena in which
the difference of temperature can be used for amplification of the sound waves, or the sound
waves can be used to amplify the temperature. According to the author, the phenomena of
thermo-acoustics can have a wide application, and the pump application is one of the many. The
difference in the sound pattern can be due to physical parameters like pressure, temperature or
the density of the medium, which acts as the transfer media for sound. For using the above
phenomena, the sound waves are made to interact with a highly porous system of extremely high

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

heat capacity compared to the conduction media through which it is traveling. The porous
medium acts as a heat storage device. According to the author, the principle that has been
discussed here is used in thermo-acoustic devices. There are two basic types of thermo-acoustic
devices; they are thermo-acoustic heat engine and thermo-acoustic heat pumps. The thermoacoustic heat engines generate the acoustic waves due to varied temperatures, on the other hand,
the thermo-acoustic pumps the acoustic signals are used to generate heat from the sound waves
(Tasnim 2011). Authors of various reports have pointed out that the applications of thermoacoustic systems are varied and can be used for a lot of applications.
Howard of the University of Adelaide is doing research upon the thermo-acoustic theory
for the purpose of development of refrigeration systems. Researchers are trying to develop Air
Conditioning system for the cars using the thermo-acoustic theory. The refrigeration technology
is a green technology because it serves as the answers to many environmental hazards caused by
the existing system. The technology doesnt use any harmful gasses as a refrigerant for
refrigeration; the device also uses the standing resonance for execution of the heating or cooling
work. The acoustic wave used inside tube resonates to produce high energy waves. The sound
waves thus help in generation of temperature in the working fluid of the system (Zhou et al.
2008). The system of the generation and absorption of the sound wave is done in a closed
compartment thus minimal sound leaks into an environment which causes no harm. The fluid
used for the process is Helium, which is inert in nature. Helium is inert, non-poisonous and nonoxidizing or reducing, thus creates no affect on the ozone layer of the earth. The refrigeration
technique that is being used in the Adelaide University uses a combination of both thermoacoustic engine plus thermo-acoustic pump. The thermo-acoustic engine uses the heat that is
being exhausted from the engine to convert it into acoustic waves further the generated waves

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

are used in the thermo-acoustic pump to generate the heat again. The generated sound power is
utilized to create a higher temperature difference between the pumping stack which leads to
entering of hotter air inside the vehicle. Advantages of the technology are, it has reduced the
dependency upon the conventional fuels (Yu & Al-Kayiem 2014). The other advantages of the
system are it reduces the pressure on the energy created by the fossil fuel, easier to maintain and
construct and will help in reduction of the production and running cost of vehicles.

Aim and Objectives

The aim of this project is to study the thermo-acoustic heat pumps and present the results
and the evidence so that the conceivability of the concept and the technology can be proven in
front of everyone. The thermo-acoustic pump or thermo-acoustic-Stirling pump can operate in a
temperature range of 50C to 80C which is the working temperature of the distillation plants.
The review thus aims to discuss the design and the requirements of the thermoacoustic pump.

Methodology
Sound or the acoustic power, in this case, is used in a thermo-acoustic heat pump for
transfer of heat from lower temperature to higher temperature. The lower temperature acoustic
waves are amplified to generate the required results, and the principle is used for both heating
and cooling purposes.

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Figure 1: The diagrammatic representation of the technology

Image Source: Mechanicalengineers.org

The figure above depicts the general working diagram of the thermo-acoustic pump between low
temperatures on the left-hand side of the figure (b) and high temperature on the right side and the
additional power for the acoustic amplification is given by the motor connected to the process
(Yu et al. 2007).

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Figure 2: Thermo-acoustic pump in distillation column

Source: www.core.ac.uk
The figure above shows the merger between the thermo-acoustic technology that is being
driven by an electric motor and the distillation column of the plant.
The thermo-acoustic heat pump which is driven electrically uses the acoustic waves to
force the liquid medium of the system to and fro the regenerator. The regenerator implements the
thermodynamic cycle that is derived from Stirling cycle. The system takes the heat from a lowertemperature sink and transfers the heat to higher temperature sink with the help of acoustics
(Widyaparaga et al. 2011). Since the system uses the acoustic waves for the propagation of
energy, there are no moving parts involved thus increasing the life cycle of the system. The only
moving part in the system is the motor that is used for pumping or amplifying the acoustic waves

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

that can be replaced with extreme ease. The Stirling cycle upon which the thermo-acoustic
technology is loosely based can be seen in the following figure.

Figure 3: Represents the Stirling Cycle

Image Source: www.robertsstirlingengine.com
The performance of the thermo-acoustic technology can be measured with the help of the
performance factor that is defined as the drive ratio. Drive ratio of the system is the correlation of
the amplitude of the dynamic pressure on the piston to the average piston pressure in the system.
The mathematical expression for the same is (P1/P2) (Tasnim 2011).
In accordance to thermodynamics:
QD = W + QI
Here,
QD = Heat that is delivered to the higher temperature of the reservoir.

ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

W = Is the work that has been done on system
QI = Heat that has been extracted from lower temperature reservoir
Coefficient of performance also known as (COP) of a heat pump can be described as,
COP = QD/ W
COPCarnot Cycle The ideal value of COP for pump.
COPcc can be defined as,
COPcc = TD / ( TD TI)
The competence of a heat pump is acquired from the relationship of the COP and COPcc.
Illustration of thermo-acoustic pump
Images that have been illustrated below shows the various aspects of the thermo-acoustic
pump. The thermo-acoustic pump has been conceived to work on Helium. Helium, the working
fluid can be pressurized to a degree of 30 bars. The operational frequency has been being limited
to 98 Hz. The diagram shows the various aspects of operations; they are resistance of the
regenerator, importance feedback and traveling wave which are necessary for heat pump
operations (Luo et al. 2006). Following illustration that has been generated in CAD for giving
the idea for heat pump has been developed with the help of DeltaE.' The image shows the
thermal water sink that is the source of the energy is at 500 to 800 C. The high-temperature sink
contains oil at the temperature of 1000-1500C.

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Figure 4: Shows the thermo-acoustic system

Image Source: www.robertsstirlingengine.com
The illustration given above (a) shows the developed heat pump and the (b) depict the crosssectional view of the thermo-acoustic pump.

Figure 5: The heat exchanger

Image Source: astaerthermo-acoustic-heatpump.com

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Figure 6: Heat exchanger

Image source: www.astaerthermo-acoustic-heatpump.com
Different sections of the thermo-acoustic pump are discussed in the following sections:
I.

Motor: The motor utilized in the case of thermo-acoustic pump is linear in nature and is a
twin piston type, moving the electromagnetic motor. The power of the motor is 300W
(Luo et al. 2006). The bore or diameter of the motor is 70mm, and the maximum bore of

II.

the motor has been restricted to 10 P2P (peak to peak).

Regenerator: The device which has been used for the thermo-acoustic pump application
has a thickness of 30mm, and the stack is made up of 200 type, mesh steel with a bore
of 43mm. Used screen wire for the system has the bore of 36m. Stack that has been
made of steel is inserted into the thin walled tube that facilitates the thermal contact for
the gas and regenerator matrix with the hydraulic bore radius has been made small as

III.

compared with the depth of thermal penetration.

Heat exchanger: The heat exchanger is designed in a way to facilitate maximum heat
transfer. The exchanger has been made of the cylindrical shaped brass block with the
machined holes; that increases the contact area and for better transfer of heat and at a
lesser time. Apart from the above-mentioned feature additional copper fins are
incorporated through which the helium absorbs heat (Ghorbanian & Karimi, 2014). The
bore of the exchanger is 43mm and length is kept 21mm.

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

IV.

Feedback Inheritance: Diameter that has been decided for feedback importance was
decided to be around 28mm, and the length was decided for feedback interface from the

V.

T-Junction of the system to the buffer zone was decided to be 0.25m.

Compliance of the system was made to be the acoustic capacitance that has the volume of
half liters for containing the Helium (Kruk 2013).

Experimental setup
For the measurement of the different process parameters, various sensors have been
placed at different locations. For the measurement of temperature, thermocouples have been
placed in the middle and at the end of the system. The pressure sensors have been placed at the
compliance for measurement of the dynamic pressure. LVDTs have been used for measurement
of the displacement of the pistons and are placed over PWG. A Turbine flow meters have been
installed for measurement of the flow of water.
The thermal capacitors are maintained at a specific temperature before starting the motor.
For obtaining steady state function of the thermo-acoustic pump, the temperature transducers are
placed at the inlet and the output port of the heat exchanger. Measurement devices of NI have
been used for detection of the various parameters through MyDAQ and LabVIEW (Bastyr &
Keolian 2003). As the whole system is set to a predefined set point, the motor is started, and the
values have been noted and analyzed for the various dynamic conditions.

Experimental Results
Various results that were obtained during the experimentation are:

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

The COPR has been kept as the relation of the drive-ratio during low temperature which is
maintained a 500C apart from three more values of high temperatures. COP R equivalent to 27%
was achieved while the temperature was 1200C.
A. At a temperature of 800C as the lower temperature, a COPR of 26% was achieved for the
drive ratio in the lower temperature plus the higher temperatures.
B. During the experimentation, it was noticed, that the wasting of heat was from the place of
the heat exchanger and the compliance is the major reason of heat loss from the system.
C. More observations have been done regarding the buffer tube of 7 0. The extra half-angle
can be used to reduce the acoustic losses that have been the result of the cross-section
mismatch (Bassem, Ueda & Akisawa, 2011). Reducing the acoustic losses at different
cross-section (bends, T- sections) of the system will be helpful in increasing the
efficiency of the system.

Figure 7: COPR and Drive ratio at 500C

Image Source: www.researchgate.net
The above figure shows the COPR acting as the function of the drive ratio at a low
temperature of 500C and the three higher temperatures.

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Figure 8: COPR and Drive ratio at 800C

Image Source: www.researchgate.net
The above figure represents the COPR as a function of the drive ratio for the lower sink
temperature of 800C and the three other higher temperatures.

Project planning
ACTIVITY
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

DESCRIPTION
Duration (DAYS)
Member selection
9
Site survey
10
Equipment selection
9
Planning phase for conduction of experiment
9
Assimilation of the equipment
20
Construction of the Heat Exchanger
20
Conduction of the Experiment
6
Analyzing of the results of Experiment
6
Data submission
2
Table 1: Show the project planning and the schedule
Table Source: As created by author

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Table 2: Gantt chart for completion of the project

Table source: As created by author

Conclusion
The thermo-acoustic heat pump was constructed in the laboratory. All the experiments
were conducted upon the prototype, and the results were obtained. The objective of the study was
to understand the feasibility of the prototype. The prototype of Stirling cycle based thermoacoustic pump for distillation process was developed, and experiments were successfully done
upon the system. The experiment was physically feasible and efficiently works for temperatures
ranging of 500C to 1500C. The maximum efficiency that was obtained for the process was 27%
and was obtained for a temperature of 50 0C. For improvement of the performance, further
modifications are necessary, for the elimination of acoustic leakages through the bends and the

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

cross-sections (Backhaus & Swift 2000). The results obtained during the experimentation were
highly successful and showed the commercial applicability of the system.

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

References
Backhaus, S. & Swift, G. 2000. A thermo-acoustic-Stirling heat engine: Detailed study. The
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107(6), p.3148.
Bassem, M., Ueda, Y. & Akisawa, A. 2011.Thermo-acoustic Stirling Heat Pump Working as a
Heater.Appl. Phys. Express, 4(10), p.107301.
Bastyr, K. & Keolian, R. 2003.High-frequency thermo-acoustic-Stirling heat engine
demonstration device.ARLO, 4(2), p.37.
Ghorbanian, K. & Karimi, M. 2014.Thermodynamic analysis of a hybrid gas turbine/thermoacoustic heat pump/refrigeration engine.International Journal of Exergy, 15(2), p.152.
Kruk, B. 2013. Technical Note. Influence of Material Used for the Regenerator on the Properties
of a Thermoacoustic Heat Pump. Archives of Acoustics, 38(4).
Luo, E., Dai, W., Zhang, Y. & Ling, H. 2006. Experimental investigation of a thermo-acousticStirling refrigerator driven by a thermo-acoustic-Stirling heat engine.Ultrasonics, 44, pp.e1531e1533.
Luo, E., Ling, H., Dai, W. & Yu, G. 2006.Experimental study of the influence of different
resonators on thermo-acoustic conversion performance of a thermo-acoustic-Stirling heat
engine.Ultrasonics, 44, pp.e1507-e1509.
Tasnim, S. 2011.Measurements of the thermal field at the stack extremities of a standing wave
thermo-acoustic heat pump.Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, 2(1).

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ELECTROMAGNETIC DRIVEN HEAT PUMP OR COOLER

Widyaparaga, A., Koshimizu, T., Noda, E., Sakoda, N., Kohno, M. & Takata, Y. 2011. The
frequency dependent regenerator cold section and hot section positional reversal in a coaxial type
thermal-acousticStirling heat pump. Cryogenics, 51(10), pp.591-597.
Yu, G., Luo, E., Dai, W. & Hu, J. 2007.Study of nonlinear processes of a large experimental
thermo-acoustic-Stirling heat engine by using computational fluid dynamics.J. Appl. Phys.,
102(7), p.074901.
Yu, G., Luo, E., Dai, W. & Wu, Z. 2007.An energy-focused thermo-acoustic-Stirling heat engine
is reaching a high-pressure ratio above 1.40.Cryogenics, 47(2), pp.132-134.
Yu, Z. & Al-Kiem, A. 2014.NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF A THERMALLY DRIVEN
THERMO-ACOUSTIC HEAT PUMP FOR LOW-GRADE HEAT RECOVERY.Comput
Thermal Science, 6(4), pp.317-327.
Zhou, G., Li, Q., Li, Z. & Li, Q. 2008. Influence of resonator diameter on a miniature thermalacousticStirling heat engine. Chinese Science Bulletin, 53(1), pp.145-154.

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