Cooling Characteristics of New Refrigeration System without Heat Transfer Fluid.

Magnetic refrigeration system based on magnetocaloric effect is considered an alternative to conventional gas refrigeration system. The magnetic refrigeration system is environmentally-friendly because it does not use global greenhouse gas. The requisite conditions for in-vehicle magnetic refrigerators are higher with respect to cooling power density, temperature difference between the hot side and cold side, transient properties, and coefficient of performance than those of household refrigerators or home air-conditioners. As a first step of the improvement of performances described above, we have proposed a new magnetic refrigeration model which does not use a heat transfer fluid while it uses thermal switches. A test rig to verify a heat transfer mechanism of the model has been created. It is confirmed with this test rig that heat is transferred from the cold side heat bath to the hot side heat bath by controlling thermal switches. The measured maximum temperature difference between the hot side and the cold side is 1.2 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]