Numerical simulation of a hybrid magnetic refrigeration combined with high pressure Stirling regenerative refrigeration effect

Abstract

Magnetic refrigeration is a cooling method based on the magnetocaloric effect, which uses solid magnetocaloric materials as refrigerant, and helium, water or other fluid as heat transfer fluids. Stirling refrigeration is a kind of mature gas regenerative cooling method, using helium gas as the refrigerant. These refrigerations have similar cycling characteristics, and are both safe, environmantal-friendly and high efficient cooling methods. Therefore, a hybrid magnetic refrigerator combined with Stirling gas refrigeration effect is proposed and designed. In our previous works for hybrid magnetic refrigeration, numerical simulation and experimental performance of the low-pressure hybrid magnetic refrigerator was carried out, and the cycling mechanism of hybrid magnetic refrigeration was also figured out. In this study, a numerical model for the high-pressure hybrid magnetic refrigeration cycle is established. The magnetic refrigeration materials are utilized as the regenerator matrix for both gas Stirling and active magnetic regenerative refrigeration in this model. Effects of gas Stirling and active magnetic regenerative refrigeration are combined to build a kind of high efficient refrigeration cycle. Ansys Fluent software is applied in this paper. Based on the physical model of hybrid refrigerator and the theories of magnetocaloric effect and numerical calculation of regenerator, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of high-pressure hybrid magnetic refrigerator is established. This paper describes the internal heat transfer mechanism of Stirling and magnetic refrigeration effect in an active regenerator. Some parameters of the model such as working frequency and utilization are analyzed and the best phase angle is figured out in order to couple these two cooling effects positively. Simulation results show that Stirling and magnetic cooling effects can be coupled positively at phase angle of 60o. Results also show that with increasing system pressure, which means to increase the utilization of the system, the system frequency can enhance the cooling performance of the system as well as improve the coefficient of performance (COP) of it. The results and analysis of the numerical model will be helpful for the construction of experimental prototype in our future work.