Heat and sound wave interactions in solids could run engines, refrigerators
A solid can serve as a medium for heat and sound wave interactions just like a fluid does for thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators – resulting in leak-free machines that can stay operating longer.
Leaky systems have limited how engineers design thermoacoustic devices that rely on the interplay between temperature oscillations and sound waves. Researchers at Purdue and the University of Notre Dame have demonstrated for the first time that thermoacoustics could theoretically occur in solids as well as fluids, recently presenting their findings at the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.