Application of Peltier thermal diodes in a magnetocaloric heat pump

After reverse engineering the Micropelt MPC-D701 Peltier module, behavior of a 2D single-stage device is examined, consisting of two Peltier modules with heat exchangers enveloping a thin layer of magnetocaloric material. The near optimal switching frequency is determined and performance characteristics are calculated for several configurations of varying load, field strength and fluid velocity. A better performance is observed without the magnetocaloric effect due to reduced heat leakage through the passive thermal diode. This behavior extends to multiple devices in series where active magnetic regeneration is induced. Two possible solutions were explored, but these did not show significant improvement in device performance when applying the magnetocaloric effect.