TRAVELING-WAVE DEVICE WITH MASS FLUX SUPPRESSION

摘要

A traveling-wave device is provided with the conventional moving pistons eliminated. Acoustic energy circulates in a direction through a fluid within a torus (30). A side branch may be connected to the torus for transferring acoustic energy into or out of the torus. A regenerator (32) is located in t he torus with a first heat exchanger (34) located on a first side of the regenerator downstream of the regenerator relative to the direction of the circulating acoustic energy; and a second heat exchanger (36) located on an upstream side of the regenerator. The improvement is a mass flux suppressor (46) located in the torus to minimize time-average mass flux of the fluid. I n one embodiment, the device further includes a thermal buffer column (70) in the torus to thermally isolate the heat exchanger that is at the operating temperature of the device.