The effect of coolants on the performance of magnetic micro-refrigerators

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

silva, dj (Author) Other; bordalo, bd (Author) Other; pereira, am (Author) FCUP; ventura, jo (Author) Other; J.C.R.E. Oliveira (Author) FEUP; araujo, jp (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Vol. 14

Pages: 4337-4340

ISSN: 1533-4880

Publisher: American Scientific Publishers

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 4 Citations

Scopus - 5 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-009-DYS

DOI: 10.1166/jnn.2014.8205

Abstract (EN): Magnetic refrigeration is an alternative cooling technique with envisaged technological applications on micro- and opto-electronic devices. Here, we present a magnetic micro-refrigerator cooling device with embedded micro-channels and based on the magnetocaloric effect. We studied the influence of the coolant fluid in the refrigeration process by numerically simulating the heat transfer processes using the finite element method. This allowed us to calculate the cooling power of the device. Our results show that gallium is the most efficient coolant fluid and, when used with Gd5Si 2Ge2, a maximum power of 11.2 W/mm3 at a working frequency of ¿5 kHz can be reached. However, for operation frequencies around 50 Hz, water is the most efficient fluid with a cooling power of 0.137 W/mm3. Copyright © 2014 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 4