Overview of Existing Magnetocaloric Prototype Devices - Magnetocaloric Energy Conversion: From Theory to Applications - page 304

Table 7.23 First rotary magnetic prototype from Cooltech Applications
Name and address of institute Cooltech Applications-5 Impasse Antoine IMBS

67810 HOLTZHEIM-France

Name of contact person/email Christian Muller/[e-mail]

Year of production 2013

Type Rotary, 2 stages

Maximum frequency 4 Hz

Maximum cooling power 120 W

Maximum temperature span 42 K

Type of AMR Packed bed

MC material(s) Gd and Gd Tb

-

Type of magnets Permanent Nd - Fe - B, 0.98 T

During performance testing the temperature of the hot side was set to 302.5 K. At
the operating frequency of 2 Hz, the no-load temperature span was 13 K. Fur-
thermore, the researchers discussed issues regarding high pressure drops, which
they assigned to the AMR

s geometry.
Later in 2009 an upgraded version of the 2007 prototype [ 54 ] was introduced by
Tura and Rowe [ 55 , 56 ]. A number of improvements were made. New heat
exchangers were designed and bleed valves were introduced to the cold heat
exchanger. Furthermore, a new

'

ow system was implemented. The hydraulic
lines were minimized and the tube diameters were increased to decrease the pressure
drop. Moreover, air evacuation prior to

fl uid- fl

fl uid lling and then circulating the fl uid to

expel air bubbles through bleed valves was introduced. After a suf cient time, the

inlet and outlet valves were closed and the hydraulic lines were pressurized to