Active Magnetic Regeneration

Abstract

It is well known that the magnetocaloric effect of most magnetocaloric materials at moderate magnetic fields (up to 1.5 T) is limited to a maximum adiabatic temperature change of 5 K [1,2]. This value is not sufficient for such materials to be directly implemented into a practical cooling or heating device where temperature span over 30 K is required. Therefore, in order to increase the temperature span, one and so far the best option is for a heat regenerator to be included in the magnetic thermodynamic cycle.A heat regenerator is a type of indirect heat exchanger where the heat is periodically stored and transferred from/to a thermal storage medium (regenerative material) by a working (heat-transfer) fluid. The regenerative material usually has a porous structure, through which a working fluid is pumped in an oscillatory, counter-flow manner (which is more efficient than a parallel flow system). During the 'hot period', a warmer fluid flows through the regenerative material, which cools down, while the material heats up. As a result, heat is stored in the material. During the 'cold period', a cooler fluid flows through previously heated regenerative material, so the fluid heats up, while the material cools down. The heat is therefore transferred back to the fluid (the same fluid or a different one) at a different phase of the thermodynamic cycle. After a certain number of such steps, a periodic steady state is reached and, as a result, a temperature profile can be established along the length of the regenerator [3].The need to apply heat regenerators in a magnetic refrigerator was already realized by Brown [4] in the first prototype of a magnetic refrigerator, built in 1976. He applied a regenerative Stirling-like thermodynamic cycle (very similar to AMR), which significantly increased the temperature span of the device [4,5]. A few years later Steyert [6] and Barclay and Steyert [7] presented and explained the active magnetic regenerator, which remains the most applied method for the exploitation of the magnetocaloric effect at room temperature. Furthermore, all prototypes of magnetic refrigerators built since then have been based on the AMR process [5]. An AMR, unlike a passive (regular) heat regenerator, contains a magnetocaloric material as the regenerative material. It has a double function in a magnetic regenerator, i.e. it works as a regenerator and enables an increase in the temperature span as well as working as a coolant and generating/absorbing heat between the particular phases of the

Giant temperature span in electrocaloric regenerator

“…We followed the principle of active regeneration in designing our EC cooling device (11,17,18,24,26,30). Active regeneration is common in heat pumps that are based on materials with a low intrinsic temperature change because it permits the device to display a temperature difference between the hot and cold side of the regenerator (DT span ) larger than the adiabatic EC temperature change of the material (DT EC ).…”

“…Our operational system (Fig. 1B) is constituted by cycles of four steps, with the first two and last two steps occurring simultaneously to emulate an Ericsson-Brayton-like cycle (30,35). We charged the EC capacitors in the first step, which increased their temperature by means of the EC effect.…”