Abstract
The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate a magnetic refrigerator operated with an active magnetic regeneration (AMR) cycle. The magnetic refrigerator, which is a cooling technology based on the magnetocaloric effect, has an advantage of F-gases free over conventional vapor compression type refrigerators as well as high efficiency. In this study, we have developed a prototype rotational magnetic refrigerator having a disk geometry material bed and compact component arrangement. The refrigeration characteristics and cooling power of this system are obtained under a variety of conditions. In addition, a numerical simulation based on the AMR cycle of the prototype system is conducted for the estimation of the performance of the magnetic refrigerator with the AMR cycle. As results of this study, it is found that the cooling capacity of the magnetic refrigerator is dependent on a utilization factor which is the heat capacities ratio between the heat transfer fluid and packed magnetocaloric materials.
