Numerical simulation and its verification for an active magnetic regenerator

Abstract

In this study, a one-dimensional model for the active magnetic regenerator (AMR) is established and verified by comparison with the experimental results. Besides four basic governing equations concerning mass and momentum conservation of heat transfer fluid and energy conservation of fluid and magnetic refrigerant, energy conservation of the regenerator wall is considered to achieve high accuracy and generalization. For the verification, a room temperature AMR has been fabricated with Gd and Halbach array. The AMR is operated by helium compressor with a rotary valve so that the effect of gas-compression/expansion also exists. Instantaneous mass flow rate and temperature distributions are measured during the experiment. Measured values are utilized as the boundary conditions and compared with the simulation results. Instead of cooling capacity or COP, simulation results are directly compared with the experimental results by temperature distribution in the AMR. The model and simulation results predict temperature distribution of the AMR properly at cyclic steady-state.