Abstract
This paper deals with the cooling characteristics of a room-temperature magnetic refrigerator using an active magnetic regenerator (AMR): The AMR-based refrigeration cycle, which consists of a thermal storage process and a regeneration process, realizes a practical magnetic refrigerator running at temperatures close to 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 AMR particle bed. Then, the temperature profile inside the AMR bed and the cooling characteristics of the room-temperature magnetic regenerator are studied analytically. In addition, the validity of the analytical model is verified by comparing the experimental results with the analytical results. The results show that the larger the transferred fluid volume, the larger is the temperature difference between the hot and the cold ends.
