Its efficiency, its low environmental impact and its reliability makes thermoacoustic solar refrigeration an interesting alternative to the existing solar systems for the cooling production. The solar adaptation of a thermoacoustic system requires an appropriate thermal design of the interface element, the solar receiver, which consists in a hot heat exchanger placed in a cavity that surrounds the focused image of the sun. The objective of this element is to efficiently collect and transfer the concentrated solar incident energy to the working fluid of the thermoacoustic system. Since acoustic waves characteristics are very sensitive to thermal disturbances, one challenge in the design of the receiver is that the temperature field within the heat exchanger must be as homogeneous as possible in space and time. Hence, a complete study, including the development of simulations tools which model the whole heat transfer processes, from solar to thermoacoustics, is necessary to optimize the prototype’s dimensions for the experimental campaign. This study describes the simulation tools and the experimental apparatus developed and the results obtained over space and time.
