Investigations On Regenerator Designs For Magnetocaloric Refrigeration

Abstract

Active Magnetocaloric Regenerative Refrigeration (AMRR) systems are a potentially attractive alternative to vapor compression refrigeration technology. To investigate the performance of an AMRR system, it is important to understand the heat transfer phenomena taking place within the regenerator. With this objective, a transient three dimensional model of a parallel plate regenerator for AMRR System for cold blow process has been developed and solved by analytical as well as numerical method. The numerical model solves the continuity and momentum equation for the flow of heat transfer fluid and coupled energy equation of the heat transfer in parallel plate of regenerator and fluid. The magnetocaloric effect is neglected particularly for present analysis. The numerical model is flexible and used to accomplish several parametric studies on parallel plate regenerator for different design selections and operating conditions. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop phenomenon were explored numerically for four fluid channel thickness (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mm) at the five Reynolds numbers (25, 50, 100, 500 and 1000) involving three different parallel plate materials (Al, Cu and Gd). Finally the numerical model of parallel plate regenerator is validated by comparing with analytical results. The validation shows the good agreement between numerical results and analytical results. The model is an important tool in the development of magnetic refrigeration into an efficient, environmentally friendly and a commercial alternative to conventional refrigeration.