Design of Miniature Thermoacoustic Refrigerator with Pin-Array Stack

As a novel refrigerator, piezoelectricity-driven miniature thermoacoustic refrigerator can be miniaturized and used in miniature electric components. Design method of the miniature refrigerator is presented in this paper. The design calculation model is first built in order to design the refrigerator. The active network model of thermoacoustic refrigerator is given and used in design calculation. In design, the pin-array stack is chosen as the heat-pump stack. Its pin spacing is optimized in terms of maximum cool power factor and minimal dissipation power factor. The length and the position are designed by the network model on the basis of the coefficient of performance (COP). Then the heat exchangers between the two ends of the stack can be designed by the same method. The design method considers the influence of the stack and heat exchanger on the acoustic field.