Performance prediction of active magnetic regenerator of room temperature magnetic refrigeration

A basic model of active magnetic regenerator (AMR) was described, and the model was solved according to Lach theory adopting Mikusinski operational calculus method. The semi-analytical solution about the temperature profile in AMR was derived. Compared with numerical solution under the same setting accuracy, the semi-analytical solution needs fewer nodes, computes more quickly and is equivalent to the numerical solution. With ideal magnetic material and typical room temperature magnetic material Gadolinium, the operational characteristics of AMR were figured. On the basis of analysis of the dimensionless number of transfer units and heat capacity ratio, the influence of operational parameters and magnetic parameter of magnetic material on the performance of AMR was analyzed. The results show that for Gadolinium, the cooling capacity decreases when the cooling temperature span increases or the temperature range moves toward low temperature.