Magnetic cooling at Risoe DTU

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current state of magnetic refrigeration research at Risoe DTU, focusing on numerical modeling of an active magnetic regenerator system and comparing simulations with experimental data.

Contribution

It presents a 2D numerical heat-transfer and fluid-flow model of an AMR system and analyzes the magnet design used in the system.

Findings

Model accurately predicts experimental data

Numerical analysis of magnet design

Insights into heat transfer and fluid flow

Abstract

Magnetic refrigeration at room temperature is of great interest due to a long-term goal of making refrigeration more energy-efficient, less noisy and free of any environmentally hostile materials. A refrigerator utilizing an active magnetic regenerator (AMR) is based on the magnetocaloric effect, which manifests itself as a temperature change in magnetic materials when subjected to a varying magnetic field. In this work we present the current state of magnetic refrigeration research at Risoe DTU with emphasis on the numerical modeling of an existing AMR test machine. A 2D numerical heat-transfer and fluid-flow model that represents the experimental setup is presented. Experimental data of both no-heat load and heat load situations are compared to the model. Moreover, results from the numerical modeling of the permanent magnet design used in the system are presented.