An experimental study of passive regenerator geometries

Active magnetic regenerative (AMR) systems are being investigated because they represent a potentially attractive alternative to vapor compression technology. The performance of these systems is dependent on the heat transfer and pressure drop performance of the regenerator geometry. Therefore this article studies the effects of regenerator geometry on performance for flat plate regenerators. This paper investigates methods of improving the performance of flat plate regenerators for use in AMR systems and studies how manufacturing variation affects regenerator performance. In order to eliminate experimental uncertainty associated with magnetocaloric material properties, all regenerators are made of aluminum. The performance of corrugated plates and dimpled plates are compared to traditional flat plate regenerators for a range of cycle times and utilizations. Each regenerator is built using 18 aluminum plates with a 0.4 mm thickness, which allows their performance to be compared directly.

► The effect of plate spacing on regenerator performance of flat plate regenerators was studied.
► A corrugated plate regenerator was found to be a potential high performance AMR geometry.
► A plate spacing to 0.1 mm resulted in a regenerator that had a lower performance than a 0.2 mm plate spacing.
► Variation to due to the manufacturing process may reduce regenerator performance as plate spacing decreases.