THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS PARAMETERS ON THERMOACOUSTIC CONVECTION

Thermoacoustic convection, that is, convection generated in a compressible fluid due to rapid heating of one of the enclosing walls, was studied numerically. Acoustic waves were found to be generated by sinusoidal heating of the wall as well as by a step function. In a finite layer of fluid the pressure wave is reflected back and forth until dissipated by viscosity. The fluctuating velocity generated by the pressure wave greatly enhances the rate of heat transfer over that for pure transient conduction. The same qualitative behavior but widely varying quantitative behavior was computed for different conditions. The simple theory of adiabatic waves, which neglects the diffusion of momentum and energy, accurately predicts the inter-relationship between the various dependent variables but neither the strength of the wave nor the rate of decay. Hence, these two approaches are complementary.