Travelling-wave thermoacoustic electricity generator using an ultra-compliant alternator for utilization of low-grade thermal energy

This paper proposes a novel concept of a travelling-wave thermoacoustic electricity generator, which employs a looped-tube travelling-wave thermoacoustic engine to convert thermal energy into acoustic power, an ultra-compliant alternator within the engine loop to extract and convert the engine acoustic power to electricity and an acoustic stub matching technique to match the alternator to the engine. In addition, a carefully designed cold heat exchanger acts as a phase shifting inertance to improve the performance. A simple model has been developed to capture and demonstrate the physics of this new concept, while the whole system has been investigated in detail numerically by using a specialized design tool DeltaEC. Based on the current concept, a prototype has been designed, constructed and tested. It uses atmospheric air as the working fluid, a commercially available audio loudspeaker as the electro-dynamic transducer, and inexpensive standard parts as the acoustic resonator. The experimental results have verified the simplified model and the numerical simulations of the practical build. The small-scale inexpensive prototype generator produced 11.6 W of electrical power, which shows the potential for developing cheap thermoacoustic electricity generators for energy recovery from waste heat sources. It is concluded that such concept could be very attractive provided that inexpensive ultra-compliant alternators based on the standard technology used in audio loudspeakers could be developed. Finally, some guidelines have been discussed and proposed for developing such alternators

A low-cost electricity generator for rural areas using a travelling-wave looped-tube thermoacoustic engine

This article describes the construction and preliminary testing of a pre-prototype thermoacoustic electricity generator to test the concept of a low-cost device for application in remote or rural areas of developing countries. A travelling-wave thermoacoustic engine with a configuration of a looped-tube resonator is designed and constructed to convert heat to acoustic power. Air at atmospheric pressure is used as the working gas, PVC tubing is utilized for the feedback pipe, whereas an inexpensive commercially available loudspeaker is adopted to convert the acoustic power, produced by the engine, to electricity. Preliminary experimental results are presented and discussed in detail. The results show that the approach is feasible in principle and it is possible to produce the electrical power levels in the order of 4-5 W with overall heat-to-electric efficiencies in the order of 1 per cent. Further work towards optimizing the device from the performance, manufacturing, and cost points of view is outlined

Multidisciplinary Development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Fleet

Eco-Dolphin – Cooperative Fleet for Surveillance Mission SIAM, Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics, members have been working for two years on the design, construction and testing of three highly integrated and streamlined autonomous underwater vehicles called Eco-Dolphins. This project is being developed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach campus. The Leverage lab is used to create detailed mathematical models and conduct preliminary research for both electrical and mechanical systems. The campus Composites lab is used for the fabrication of structural and aesthetic components used by the high adaptable platform. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle testing is conducted in the Universities Nonlinear Waves lab. The first phase of design, production and assembly of the yellow Eco-Dolphin prototype has been done in twelve months. The design includes an internal attitude control system, combined with internal propulsion from brushless direct current thrusters, thus allowing the vehicle to ascend and descend. The Eco-Dolphins promise is to be a unique, highly optimized and a competitive underwater vehicle fleet. The team has also successfully completed the second phase of the program, which involved tracking the Eco-Dolphins while submerged underwater. Work has been conducted to add a GPS system for surface tracking. Converting the acoustic system from tethered to wireless to make the ground station more robust. The Eco-Dolphin is configured with recently developed control system software that utilizes a relay combination of Wireless, Sonar and GPS radio wave communication. The current progress on the blue Eco-dolphin will be completed by the summer of 2014, for testing in littoral waters of central Florida. Through the addition of three sequential (yellow, blue, red) vehicles, therefore allows for better position and orientation data to be sent to the teams buoy network. The three vehicles, three buoy communication structure, multiply the data points collected for surveillance and underwater mapping purposes. This additional complexity improves the reliability and increases the application of the product through error elimination software. The team gives hands on research experience to SIAM members through applied mathematics. The outcome of the research goals, results in the application of many fields of study beyond mathematics. When combined the fleet can cooperatively fulfill multitask missions, advanced surveillance and environmental monitoring can be conducted. This opportunity opens the way for better balance between sustainable developments of the coastline

Evaluation of Cellular-level Haversian Bone Resorption in Human Hyperparathyroid States: A Preliminary Report

Cellular-level bone resorption was evaluated in 16 patients undergoing renal dialysis and in two with primary hyperparathyroidism, by quantitative histological means using tissue time markers. When averaged over periods greater than two weeks, the individual osteoclasts in these patients resorbed less bone in unit time than normal

PIV studies of coherent structures generated at the end of a stack of parallel plates in a standing wave acoustic field

Oscillating flow near the end of a stack of parallel plates placed in a standing wave resonator is investigated using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The Reynolds number, Re d , based on the plate thickness and the velocity amplitude at the entrance to the stack, is controlled by varying the acoustic excitation (so-called drive ratio) and by using two configurations of the stacks. As the Reynolds number changes, a range of distinct flow patterns is reported for the fluid being ejected from the stack. Symmetrical and asymmetrical vortex shedding phenomena are shown and two distinct modes of generating "vortex streets" are identified

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Thermal Management of an Outdoor Battery Cabinet

Many forms of electronic equipment such as battery packs and telecom equipment must be stored in harsh outdoor environment. It is essential that these facilities be protected from a wide range of ambient temperatures and solar radiation. Temperature extremes greatly reduce lead-acid based battery performance and shorten battery life. Therefore, it is important to maintain the cabinet temperature within the optimal values between 20oC and 30oC to ensure battery stability and to extend battery lifespan. To this end, cabinet enclosures with proper thermal management have been developed to house such electronic equipment in a highly weather tight manner, especially for battery cabinet. In this paper, the flow field and temperature distribution inside an outdoor cabinet are studied experimentally and numerically. The battery cabinets house 24 batteries in two configurations namely, two-layer configuration and six-layer configuration respectively. The cabinet walls are maintained at a constant temperature by a refrigeration system. The cabinet’s ability to protect the batteries from an ambient temperature as high as 50oC is studied. An experimental facility is developed to measure the battery surface temperatures and to validate the numerical simulations. The differences between the experimental and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) results are within 5%

Spin Caloritronics

This is a brief overview of the state of the art of spin caloritronics, the science and technology of controlling heat currents by the electron spin degree of freedom (and vice versa).Comment: To be published in "Spin Current", edited by S. Maekawa, E. Saitoh, S. Valenzuela and Y. Kimura, Oxford University Pres

Numerical study of the thermoelectric power factor in ultra-thin Si nanowires

Low dimensional structures have demonstrated improved thermoelectric (TE) performance because of a drastic reduction in their thermal conductivity, {\kappa}l. This has been observed for a variety of materials, even for traditionally poor thermoelectrics such as silicon. Other than the reduction in {\kappa}l, further improvements in the TE figure of merit ZT could potentially originate from the thermoelectric power factor. In this work, we couple the ballistic (Landauer) and diffusive linearized Boltzmann electron transport theory to the atomistic sp3d5s*-spin-orbit-coupled tight-binding (TB) electronic structure model. We calculate the room temperature electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and power factor of narrow 1D Si nanowires (NWs). We describe the numerical formulation of coupling TB to those transport formalisms, the approximations involved, and explain the differences in the conclusions obtained from each model. We investigate the effects of cross section size, transport orientation and confinement orientation, and the influence of the different scattering mechanisms. We show that such methodology can provide robust results for structures including thousands of atoms in the simulation domain and extending to length scales beyond 10nm, and point towards insightful design directions using the length scale and geometry as a design degree of freedom. We find that the effect of low dimensionality on the thermoelectric power factor of Si NWs can be observed at diameters below ~7nm, and that quantum confinement and different transport orientations offer the possibility for power factor optimization.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures; Journal of Computational Electronics, 201

Flow characteristics of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in a vessel stirred by a 60° pitched blade impeller

Mean and rms velocity characteristics of two Newtonian flows at Reynolds numbers of 12,800 (glycerin solution) and 48,000 (water) and of a non-Newtonian flow (0.2% CMC solution, at a power number similar to the Newtonian glycerin flow) in a mixing vessel stirred by a 60° pitched blade impeller have been measured by laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). The velocity measurements, resolved over 360° and 1.08° of impeller rotation, showed that the mean flow of the two power number matched glycerin and CMC flows were similar to within 3% of the impeller tip velocity and the turbulence intensities generally lower in the CMC flow by up to 5% of the tip velocity. The calculated mean flow quantities showed similar discharge coefficient and pumping efficiency in all three flows and similar strain rate between the two power number matched glycerin and CMC flows; the strain rate of the higher Reynolds number Newtonian flow was found to be slightly higher. The energy balance around the impeller indicated that the CMC flow dissipated up to 9% more of the total input power and converted 7% less into the turbulence compared to the glycerin flow with the same power input which could lead to less effective mixing processes where the micro-mixing is important