EFFECTIVENESS ENHANCEMENT OF A THERMAL REGENERATOR IN AN OSCILLATING FLOW

An experimental study has been carried out to investigate the effects of the combination of regenerator materials on the regenerator effecti veness in an oscillating flow. Three types of regenerators are conside red in this study. A homogeneous regenerator is made of a wire mesh nu mber 120. Two heterogeneous regenerators are made of the combination o f three kinds of wire mesh numbers (60, 120, 200), (200, 120, 60) in o rder. The average porosities of all these regenerators are kept at 0.7 in the experiment. Transient temperature variations inside the regene rator as well as pressure differences between the both ends of regener ator are measured for the several oscillating frequencies. The results obtained indicate that not only the regenerator effectiveness can be enhanced, but also that the pressure loss is decreased with the proper combination of regenerator materials even though the average porosity of the regenerator is not changed. It is also found that the pressure loss through the regenerator is increased with an increase in the fre quency of oscillating flow, while the regenerator effectiveness is dec reased. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.