The mechanism of a closed-loop, acoustically resonant multi-stage traveling-wave thermoacoustic heat engine was studied in this paper. The critical area ratio between the regenerator and resonator under different temperatures was studied first. Then, under different heating temperatures, three kinds of multistage heat engines were simulated and analyzed. The increase of hot-end temperature would enforce thermoacoustic oscillation resulting in more acoustic power gained but also some disadvantages especially for heat engines with more stages. Satisfactory performance was obtained for the majority cases when increasing the number of stages, but a 16-stage heat engine has a limit in medium and high temperature heating. Finally, possible methods to improve thermoacoustic performance were proposed.
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