The work presented in this thesis is a contribution to the study of the thermoacoustic heat pumping. The word 'thermoacoustic' refers to the specific thermodynamic interaction between two adjacent media - a compressible fluid and a solid with high heat capacity - subjected to acoustic propagation. While a fluid particle experiences pressure fluctuations and thus temperature changes, it moves along the solid resulting in energy transfer between the fluid and the solid....[ Read more ]

The work presented in this thesis is a contribution to the study of the thermoacoustic heat pumping. The word 'thermoacoustic' refers to the specific thermodynamic interaction between two adjacent media - a compressible fluid and a solid with high heat capacity - subjected to acoustic propagation. While a fluid particle experiences pressure fluctuations and thus temperature changes, it moves along the solid resulting in energy transfer between the fluid and the solid.

The present fundamental study focuses on a stack of parallel plane plates plunged in a gas subjected to an acoustic wave. The domain of research is turned towards application. Numerical and experimental approaches are associated allowing the validation of a two-dimensional nonlinear numerical tool. The model is based on the low Mach approximation of the complete set of Navier-Stokes equations. The resulting system is solved numerically at an acoustic time scale and the calculation reiterated on a solid thermal diffusion time scale. A first validation of this tool in the linear thermoacoustic domain is carried out on published results. It leads to some remarks on previous studies justifying the need for completing them. An experimental setup corresponding to the numerical tool was then designed and the interesting operating conditions established. A good comparison between our experimental and our numerical results is then presented.