As a new type of refrigeration technology, the traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator offers advantages that include high efficiency, reliability and environmental friendliness. To date, because of problems such as low power utilization and high power recovery losses, traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerators for use in room temperature applications have not been widely studied. In this paper, following an investigation of the traditional single-stage traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator, a multi-stage traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator is proposed and the working mechanism of this refrigerator is studied numerically using SAGE software. The calculation results show that the proposed multi-stage traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator can enhance the utilization of the input acoustic work effectively, thereby improving the cooling power of the refrigerator with high cooling efficiency. As a result, the cooling power increases from 2.17 kW for a single-stage refrigerator to 6.42 kW for a seven-stage refrigerator, while the acoustic work utilization rate increases from 0.26 to 0.82, and the coefficient of performance changes from 2.60 to 3.19. The calculation results also indicate that three to five stages may be most suitable for the multi-stage traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigerator when working within the temperature range of interest here by striking a balance between cooling efficiency and cooling power.

行波热声制冷机作为一种新型制冷技术，具有效率高，可靠性高，环境友好等优点。迄今为止，由于诸如低功率利用和高功率恢复损耗的问题，尚未广泛研究用于室温应用的行波热声冰箱。本文在对传统的单级行波热声制冷机进行研究的基础上，提出了一种多级行波热声制冷机，并利用SAGE软件对该机的工作机理进行了数值研究。计算结果表明，所提出的多级行波热声制冷机可以有效地提高输入声功的利用率，从而以高冷却效率提高冰箱的冷却能力。结果，冷却功率从单级冰箱的2.17 kW增加到七级冰箱的6.42 kW，而声学功利用率从0.26增加到0.82，性能系数从2.60改变为3.19。计算结果还表明，通过在冷却效率和冷却功率之间取得平衡，在此处感兴趣的温度范围内工作时，三到五个阶段可能最适合多阶段行波热声制冷机。声学工作利用率从0.26提高到0.82，性能系数从2.60改变到3.19。计算结果还表明，通过在冷却效率和冷却功率之间取得平衡，在此处感兴趣的温度范围内工作时，三到五个阶段可能最适合多阶段行波热声制冷机。声学工作利用率从0.26提高到0.82，性能系数从2.60改变到3.19。计算结果还表明，通过在冷却效率和冷却功率之间取得平衡，在此处感兴趣的温度范围内工作时，三到五个阶段可能最适合多阶段行波热声制冷机。