Aspects of the thermoacoustic effect considering mean flow

The rising global demand for energy coinciding with increasingly stringent requirements for emissions, opens the field for alternative energy conversion processes. The phase lag of acoustic fluctuating quantities in the vicinity of the thermal and viscous acoustic boundary layer facilitates an efficient transformation of heat to acoustic power and vice versa. As the involved mechanisms come along with low thermal driving ratios, there is an increased interest in utilizing this effect in commercial applications. The interaction of this thermoacoustic conversion mechanism with mean flow is barely understood and hence no proper modeling approaches exist. Thus, the research activity is mostly restricted to thermoacoustic apparatuses operating in quiescent environment. Many technologies with a conceivable application of such converters are inherently employing mean flow. This thesis aims at providing a deeper understanding of the interaction of thermoacoustic boundary layer effects and mean flow. A quasi one-dimensional predictivemodel is derived analytically. Thismodel is validated against both CFD data and experimentalmeasurement accomplished in this study. Generating a deeper insight into the interaction of thermoacoustic energy conversion and providing an improved low-order modeling tool, this thesis facilitates the identification of an optimum combination of thermoacoustic energy conversion and mean flow conditions.