Compact heat-driven cryocoolers can harness the thermal energy produced by burning a small quantity of natural gas to accomplish liquefaction. This addresses the requirements of distributed natural gas stations in remote locations. This paper introduces a Franchot double-acting heat-driven thermoacoustic-Stirling cryocooler designed for natural gas liquefaction. It conducts a comparative analysis of the mechanical and electrical systems, focusing on the acoustic field, available energy loss, and performance. Simulation results indicate that the optimized mechanical configuration system achieves peak performance with a piston area ratio of 0.84 and a piston phase angle of 90°. It yields a cooling power of 1964 W@130 K when driven by an 873 K heat source, resulting in an overall system efficiency of 28.3%. This marks a notable enhancement compared to current thermoacoustic systems. While the electrical configuration provides superior stability, the performance is constrained by significant losses in acoustic-electric conversion of linear alternators and compressors. To further enhance efficiency, it is worthwhile to establish direct power transfer between the pistons, for example, by aligning the expansion piston and compression piston coaxially. The evolved duplex configuration eliminates the loss from electrical energy conversion, leading to a remarkable 64.7% increase in overall efficiency. Simultaneously, this evolutionary approach offers a new perspective to elucidate the inherent connections among Stirling heat engines of Franchot double-acting and duplex. It provides valuable theoretical insights for the subsequent analysis and design of Stirling heat-driven refrigerators or cryocoolers.

中文翻译：

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Franchot双作用热驱动热声-斯特林天然气液化制冷机数值研究

紧凑型热驱动制冷机可以利用燃烧少量天然气产生的热能来完成液化。这满足了偏远地区分布式天然气站的要求。本文介绍了一种专为天然气液化设计的 Franchot 双作用热驱动热声斯特林制冷机。它对机械和电气系统进行了比较分析，重点关注声场、可用能量损失和性能。仿真结果表明，优化后的机械配置系统在活塞面积比为0.84、活塞相位角为90°时达到峰值性能。当由 873 K 热源驱动时，它可产生 1964 W@130 K 的冷却功率，从而使整体系统效率达到 28.3%。与当前的热声系统相比，这标志着显着的增强。虽然电气配置提供了卓越的稳定性，但其性能受到线性交流发电机和压缩机声电转换中的显着损耗的限制。为了进一步提高效率，值得在活塞之间建立直接动力传递，例如通过同轴对齐膨胀活塞和压缩活塞。改进的双工配置消除了电能转换的损失，使整体效率显着提高了 64.7%。同时，这种进化方法提供了一个新的视角来阐明法兰肖双作用和双联斯特林热机之间的内在联系。它为斯特林热驱动冰箱或制冷机的后续分析和设计提供了宝贵的理论见解。