Study on Numerical Simulation of Non-uniform Flow Channel of Parallel Plate Active Magnetic Regenerator

In the parallel plate active magnetic regenerator, non-uniform flow channel is caused by uneven plate spacing. In order to investigate the influence of spacing maldistribution on the heat transfer performance of magnetic refrigerator, it develops a two-dimensional transient model of magnetic refrigeration by means of Comsol 5.4 in this paper. The geometric structures of the model are identical with the operating conditions except that the relative standard deviation which characterizes the degree of flow channel unevenness is different. The heat transfer performance of AMR is measured by comparing the temperature cloud map of the magnetic refrigerator with different relative standard deviations and the temperature span. The simulation results show that the average temperature at the cold end of regenerator increases with the unevenness of channels. The temperature span generated by 36% standard deviation case is 5.8 K, which is about 50% lower than the 11.1 K achieved by the uniform case. When the standard deviation is higher than 36%, the temperature span decreases slowly. Therefore, the non-uniform flow channel has a great impact on the heat transfer performance of magnetic refrigerator, it is necessary to conduct excellent lamination manufacturing process in the experiment to make the flow channel width as consistent as possible.