Adapting an active magnetic regenerator to a continuous fluid flow application

This paper presents a concept adapted to magnetocaloric refrigeration in order to better suit an application of a continuous fluid flow such as an industrial process. The concept, called the by-pass flow, consists in a derivation in the fluid flow from the Active Magnetic Regenerator (AMR) in order to take a part of the heat transfer fluid from the cold side of the regenerator after passing it through a counter-current heat exchanger to reinject it into the hot side. The value of the by-pass fluid flow rate has been studied by using two theoretical methods (qualitative and quantitative approaches) then validated by numerical simulations and experimental measurements. Numerical simulation shows an increase of 27% in the value of cooling power when the by-pass method is implemented. In the case of experimental measurements, the cooling power with the by-pass solution shows values between 8% and 22% more than the classic solution, depending on the frequency values. The main operations are described and the results are presented, analyzed and discussed.