Experimental performance investigation of an active magnetic regenerator subject to different fluid flow waveforms

A flow control mechanism based on cam actuated valves is designed and implemented on an active magnetic regenerator test apparatus. The objective is to overcome the brief low field period of the nested concentric Halbach array by decreasing the fluid blow width, displacing fluid only when the magnetic field is close to the minimum and maximum values. Flow waveforms are simulated to evaluate varying blow durations with the same displaced volume. AMR experiments are performed where the largest ExQ of 1.62 W is obtained with VD = 13.90 cm3 and a diversion ratio of δ = 0.41, demonstrating an 11.2% increase over the sinusoidal waveform.