Magnetocaloric Cooling Device with Reciprocating Motion of the Magnetic Field Source

This paper describes the magnetic cooling device model designed and built at the Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals in Gliwice, which utilizes reciprocating motion of a magnetic field source and a cyclic flow of a coolant through regenerator. The regenerator made from gadolinum made it possible to obtain an adiabatic temperature change of 2.5 K at the magnetic field of 0.8 T. The magnetic field source was built using neodymium magnets according to our own technology. For the heat transfer, a liquid having the specific heat of about 4000 J/(kg K) has been applied. We have also developed and applied a special driving system enabling reciprocating motion of the magnetic field source and of the pistons in the hot and cold heat exchangers. The tests were made with this cooling model showing that it was possible to obtain, at the frequency of 0.5 Hz, the liquid temperature gradient of 4 K. The potential energy savings resulting from application of this device have been evaluated and compared with the literature data presenting a pre-industrial prototype of the magnetic refrigerator utilizing similar solutions to those applied in our cooling model.