Experimental Studies with an Active Magnetic Regenerating Refrigerator

Experimental results for an active magnetic regenerator (AMR) are presented. The focus is on whether or not it pays off to partly substitute soft magnetic material with non-magnetic insulation in a flux-conducting core in the magnet system. Such a substitution reduces losses due to heat conduction and eddy currents, but also reduces the magnetic field. Two different cores were tested in the AMR system with different cooling loads and it is shown, that in the present case, replacing half of the iron with insulation lead to an average reduction in temperature span of 14%, but also a small decrease in COP, hence the substitution did not pay off. Furthermore, it is shown experimentally, that small imbalances in the heat transfer fluid flow greatly influence the system performance. A reduction of these imbalances through valve adjustments resulted in an increase in the temperature span from approximately 16 K to 27.3 K.