Credit: Randall A. Ali
Penn State University
This thermoacoustic engine was made out of a stainless steel cylindrical tube (resonator) at Idaho National Laboratory. An electrical heater (glowing red) made from nickel-chromium wire, which acts as a heat source, is pushed up against a stack of 1100 cells per square inch. The wires leaving the stack are two thermocouples, which are used to measure the temperature gradient across the stack. During experiments, the electrical heater and stack are placed within the resonator and the entire system is submerged in water.