Laptop’s Heat “Recycled” : Thermoacoustic, Converting Heat into Sound
Looks like all that heat generated by your laptop may finally be useful for something other than frying eggs…
A group of grad students led by professor Orest Symko at the University of Utah has unveiled an array of “thermoacoustic” engines that turn heat into sound, which in turn can be directed to a piezoelectric mechanism to produce electricity.
The US Army-funded research seems promising though still in its early stage– one of the designs the researchers demonstrated is half the size of a penny but pumps out 120dB of noise (about the same as a siren), while another screams over 135dB, (which is roughly equivalent to a jackhammer).
The team expects that future, smaller designs will work at ultrasonic frequencies outside the range of human hearing. Professor Symko says they’ll be testing these designs at the University’s water-heating facility in the next year.
[ via Engadget ]
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