Acoustic streaming related to minor loss phenomenon in differentially heated elements of thermoacoustic devices.

It is demonstrated that the differentially heated stack, the heart of all thermoacoustic devices, provides a source of streaming additional to those associated with Reynolds stresses in quasi-unidirectional gas flow. This source of streaming is related to temperature-induced asymmetry in the generation of vortices and turbulence near the stack ends. The asymmetry of the hydrodynamic effects in an otherwise geometrically symmetric stack is due to the temperature difference between stack ends. The proposed mechanism of streaming excitation in annular thermoacoustic devices operates even in the absence of thermo-viscous interaction of sound waves with resonator walls.