The energy performances of a rotary permanent magnet magnetic refrigerator

• A test apparatus has been analyzed.
• Gadolinium spheres have been used as refrigerant.
• Experimental results under various conditions have been performed.
• The maximum cooling capacity, the temperature span and the COP have been measured.
• The energy performances of a Magnetic Refrigerator have been discussed.

The interest of the scientific community regarding magnetic refrigeration at room temperature is constantly growing. In recent years, there has been an increase in the experimental work relating to both new prototypes and new magnetocaloric materials. The magnetic refrigerators built to date still have some limitations that make them uncompetitive when compared with conventional vapour compression systems. However, among the different configurations realized, one can recognize that rotary devices, having rotating magnets and static regenerators, are of particular interest because of their good energy performances. In this paper, we report an experimental investigation on the identification of the energy performances of a Rotary Permanent Magnet Magnetic Refrigerator. Employing 1.20 kg of gadolinium and operating at a temperature of heat rejection equal to 296 K, the system was subjected to different operating conditions obtained by varying the thermal load, volumetric flow rate of the regenerating fluid and cycle frequency.

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