Experimental investigation of small-scale magnetocaloric refrigerator

Abstract

The small-scale magnetocaloric cooling device was developed at Czech Technical University in Prague. The magnetocaloric small-scale cooling system was designed as push-pull system with two permanent magnets with field of about 0.85 T. The construction offers a possibility to alter independently many parameters of the cooling process and it ensures easy way to change working material and design of heat exchangers. The measurements were performed with 35 g of gadolinium as a working material and ethanol as heat transfer liquid. Device was successfully operated at room temperature with maximal heat span of 3.1 K. In the article we report design of the machine and first measurement performed on it.