Evaluation of fundamental performance on magnetocaloric cooling with active magnetic regenerator

This paper deals with the cooling characteristics of a magnetocaloric cooling technique refrigerator an active magnetic regenerator (AMR). The AMR-based refrigeration cycle, which has a thermal storage process and a regeneration process, realizes a practical magnetic refrigerator running near room temperature. The AMR cycle has four sequential processes: adiabatic magnetization, fluid flow, adiabatic demagnetization, and fluid flow. We devise an appropriate simulation model of the cyclic heat transfer process inside the particle bed as the target AMR. Then, the temperature profile inside the AMR particle bed and the cooling characteristics of the room-temperature magnetic regenerator are studied analytically. In addition, the validity of the analytical model by molecular field approximation theory is verified by comparing the experimental results with the analytical results. The results show that, when a higher magnetic field is applied to the magnetocaloric material, a greater temperature difference is obtained. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.