The Performance Optimization of an Active Magnetocaloric Regenerator Refrigerator for Near Room Temperature Application

This paper develops a numerical model of a magnetic refrigeration system with AMRs to investigate the effects of the velocity of fluid, operating frequency and the length of AMR bed on the performance enhancement, including the temperature span and cooling capacity. In addition, two optimization problems were formulated and solved to maximize the system cooling capacity and temperature span when pressure drop was the constraint. By solving the optimization problems, 26.4% more cooling capacity and temperature span can be achieved. It was found that by restricting the utilization factor to about 0.6 can obtain the maximum cooling capacity, while the utilization factor is about 0.4 can obtain maximum temperature span.