Title: Numerical simulation on thermoacoustic separation effect in an acoustic resonator

Authors: Ya-Ling He; Han-Bing Ke; Dan-Hua Mei; Wen-Quan Tao; Ying-Wen Liu

Addresses: Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China ' Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China ' Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China ' Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China ' Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710049, China

Abstract: Thermoacoustic separation is a totally new method for separating gas mixtures. A two-dimensional numerical model has been developed to study the thermoacoustic separation effect in an acoustic resonator filled with He-Ar mixture. Numerical results are validated via a separation resonator with a theoretical prediction. It is shown that the heavy component can be pumped from the pressure node to the velocity node while the light component moves in the opposite direction, which results in separation of the mixture along the propagation direction of sound wave. This work lays a foundation for analysing the mechanism of this novel separation method.

Keywords: thermoacoustic separation; numerical simulation; compressible SIMPLE algorithm.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2013.053658

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2013 Vol.13 No.3/4, pp.172 - 181

Published online: 31 Oct 2013 *

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