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A
Seminar Report
On
MAGNETIC REFRIGIRATION
Submitted In partial fulfilment of
The requirement for the award of the Degree Of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
By:
NADI BIDYADHARA
College Roll.no-12ME021
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GANDHI INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
GUNUPUR – 765022
2015-2016
ii
Gandhi Institute of
Engineering & Technology
GUNUPUR – 765 022, Dist: Rayagada (Orissa), India
(Approved by AICTE, Govt. of Orissa and Affiliated to BijuPatnaikUniversity of Technology)
: 06857 – 250172(Office), 251156(Principal), 250232(Fax),
e-mail: gandhi_giet@yahoo.com visit us at www.giet.org
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
CERTIFICATE
ISO 9001:2000
Certified Institute
This is to certify that the seminar report work entitled
“MAGNETIC REFRIGIRATION ”is the bonafide work carried
out by NADI BIDYADHARA student of BACHELOR OF
TECHNOLOGY, GANDHI INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING
AND TECHNOLOGY during the academic year 2015-16 in
partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the
Degree of BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY in MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING.
Prof. KALI CHARAN RATH Prof. A.V.N.L. SHARMA
Semianr I/C HOD (MECH)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
Here I would like to extent my heartfelt obligation to the
following person for their sincere help and co-operation during the
seminar presentation without whose help this report would never
have been completed.
Much credit and heartfelt thanks is owed to HOD (head of
department) of my Institution GIET, GUNUPUR for
encouraging and allowing me to present the topic “MAGNETIC
REFRIGIRATION” at the seminar held at our department
premises for the partial fulfilment of the requirements leading to
the award of B-Tech degree.
I also want to thank our department in charge Prof KALI
CHARAN RATH. I am extremely grateful and indebted to them
for her expert, sincere and valuable guidance and encouragement
extended to me.
Last but not the least I would like to extend a special word of
thanks to all my friends and family members for giving me a
helping hand whenever needed and for making the seminar a
grand success.
NADI BIDYADHARA
MECH.
CONTENT Pages
1. Introduction 1
2. The magnetocaloric effect 3
2.1 Equation
2.2 Applied technique
3. Thermodynamic cycle 7
4. Process of magnetic refrigiration 10
5. Woking materials 12
4.1 Parametric salt
4.2 Nuclear demagnetization
6. Commertial development 15
5.1 Current & Future uses
7. Historical background 16
8. Magnetothermodynamic machines 17
9. Advangages & disadvantages 19
10.Possible future applications 20
11. Conclusion 21
1.Introduction
The refrigeration technology market is closely related to beverage
and food production, industrial process, the chemical and
pharmaceutical industry, the automotive sector, etc. Some of these
sectors have strongly growing markets, thanks to the rising incomes
of Eastern European, Indian and Chinese customers, with their desire
for modern consumer goods driving such development. The retail
market, supermarket and hypermarket chains are strongly benefiting
from this development. Because the number of built alternative
refrigeration technologies such as absorption or adsorption
refrigeration, thermoelectric and thermoacoustic refrigeration, etc. is
negligible, this leads to positive prospects for the gas-compression
system producers.
Furthermore, the tendency to cool domestic buildings in southern
areas is also increasing. The business-as-usual scenario, based on
dynamic numerical climatological system simulations, was published
by the European Commission. The prediction for the year 2010 is an
HFC emission level the equivalent of 66 Mtonnes CO2. This is an
increase of 62% based on the value of 1995. Refrigeration and air
[1]
conditioning are responsible for the main fraction, namely 43%.
What are the alternatives, if HFCs also will have to be reduced? This
is a desire of an increasing number of politicians that already has
been announced in some countries. Maybe new less harmful
refrigerants will be discovered. A new blend H has just been
developed and announced by an industrial company, but up until
now, reliable experience is missing.
The time would be ideal for an alternative refrigeration
technology such as, for example, magnetic refrigeration. For the
interested reader, who wants to gain a greater insight into magnetic
heat pumps and refrigerators than given in this short informatory
note, several review articles are available .
This promising technology works without a gaseous refrigerant
and its energy efficiency (coefficient of performance, COP) in
principle can be higher than that of a conventional refrigeration
system. As a result, its breakthrough in certain domains of the
refrigeration market would lead to less CO2 output into the
atmosphere.
This informatory note gives an overview of this spectacular
technology, discusses ideal and not-so-promising applications and
reports on some problems which have to be solved in order to enter
industrialising phases for the various refrigeration applications
envisaged.
[2]
(Fig-1 .Gadolinium alloy heats up inside the magnetic field and loses thermal energy to
the environment, so it exits the field cooler than when it entere.)
.
2.The magnetocaloric effect
The magnetocaloric effect (MCE, from magnet and calorie) is a
magneto-thermodynami phenomenon in which a temperature change of
a suitable material is caused by exposing the material to a changing
magnetic field. This is also known by low temperature physicists as
adiabatic demagnetization. In that part of the refrigeration process, a
decrease in the strength of an externally applied magnetic field allows
the magnetic domains of a magnetocaloric material to become
disoriented from the magnetic field by the agitating action of the thermal
energy (phonons) present in the material. If the material is isolated so that
no energy is allowed to (re)migrate into the material during this time, (i.e.,
an adiabatic process) the temperature drops as the domains absorb the
thermal energy to perform their reorientation. The randomization of the
domains occurs in a similar fashion to the randomization
[3]
at the curie temperature of a ferromagnetic material, except that magnetic
dipoles overcome a decreasing external magnetic field while energy
remains constant, instead of magnetic domains being disrupted from
internal ferromagnetism as energy is added.
One of the most notable examples of the magnetocaloric effect is in
the chemical element gadolinium and some of its alloys. Gadolinium's
temperature increases when it enters certain magnetic fields. When it leaves
the magnetic field, the temperature drops. The effect is considerably
stronger for the gadolinium alloy , Praseodymiumalloyed with nickel has
such a strong magnetocaloric effect that it has allowed scientists to
approach to within one milliKelvin, one thousandth of a degree of absolute
zero.
Equation
The magnetocaloric effect can be quantified with the equation below:
[4]
where T is the temperature, H is the applied magnetic field, C is the heat
capacity of the working magnet (refrigerant) and M is the magnetization of
the refrigerant.
From the equation we can see that magnetocaloric effect can be enhanced
by:
• applying a large field
• using a magnet with a small heat capacity
• using a magnet with a large change in magnetization vs. temperature,
at a constant magnetic field.
Applied Technique
The basic operating principle of an adiabatic demagnetization
refrigerator (ADR) is the use of a strong magnetic field to control the
entropy of a sample of material, often called the "refrigerant". Magnetic
field constrains the orientation of magnetic dipoles in the refrigerant. The
stronger the magnetic field, the more aligned the dipoles are, corresponding
to lower entropy and heat capacity because the material has (effectively)
lost some of its internal degrees of freedom. If the refrigerant is kept at a
constant temperature through thermal contact with a heat sink (usually
liquid helium) while the magnetic field is switched on, the refrigerant must
[5]
lose some energy because it is equilibrated with the heat sink. When
the magnetic field is subsequently switched off, the heat capacity of the
refrigerant rises again because the degrees of freedom associated with
orientation of the dipoles are once again liberated, pulling their share
of equipartitioned energy from the motion of the molecules, thereby
lowering the overall temperature of a system with decreased energy. Since
the system is now insulated when the magnetic field is switched off, the
process is adiabatic, i.e., the system can no longer exchange energy with its
surroundings (the heat sink), and its temperature decreases below its initial
value, that of the heat sink.
The operation of a standard ADR proceeds roughly as follows. First, a
strong magnetic field is applied to the refrigerant, forcing its various
magnetic dipoles to align and putting these degrees of freedom of the
refrigerant into a state of lowered entropy. The heat sink then absorbs the
heat released by the refrigerant due to its loss of entropy. Thermal contact
with the heat sink is then broken so that the system is insulated, and the
magnetic field is switched off, increasing the heat capacity of the
refrigerant, thus decreasing its temperature below the temperature of the
heat sink. In practice, the magnetic field is decreased slowly in order to
[6]
provide continuous cooling and keep the sample at an approximately
constant low temperature. Once the field falls to zero or to some low
limiting value determined by the properties of the refrigerant, the cooling
power of the ADR vanishes, and heat leaks will cause the refrigerant to
warm up.
3.Thermodynamic cycle
(Fig-2thermodynamic cycle)
The cycle is performed as a refrigeration cycle that is analogous to
the Carnot refrigeration cycle, but with increases and decreases in magnetic
field strength instead of increases and decreases in pressure. It can be
described at a starting point whereby the chosen working substance is
[7]
introduced into a magnetic field, i.e., the magnetic flux density is increased.
The working material is the refrigerant, and starts in thermal equilibrium
with the refrigerated environment.
• Adiabatic magnetization: A magnetocaloric substance is placed in an
insulated environment. The increasing external magnetic field (+H)
causes the magnetic dipoles of the atoms to align, thereby decreasing the
material's magnetic entropy and heat capacity. Since overall energy is
not lost (yet) and therefore total entropy is not reduced (according to
thermodynamic laws), the net result is that the substance is heated (T +
ΔTad).
• Isomagnetic enthalpic transfer: This added heat can then be removed
(-Q) by a fluid or gas — gaseous or liquid helium, for example. The
magnetic field is held constant to prevent the dipoles from reabsorbing
the heat. Once sufficiently cooled, the magnetocaloric substance and the
coolant are separated (H=0).
[8]
• Adiabatic demagnetization: The substance is returned to another
adiabatic (insulated) condition so the total entropy remains constant.
However, this time the magnetic field is decreased, the thermal energy
causes the magnetic moments to overcome the field, and thus the sample
cools, i.e., an adiabatic temperature change. Energy (and entropy)
transfers from thermal entropy to magnetic entropy (disorder of the
magnetic dipoles).
• Isomagnetic entropic transfer: The magnetic field is held constant to
prevent the material from reheating. The material is placed in thermal
contact with the environment to be refrigerated. Because the working
material is cooler than the refrigerated environment (by design), heat
energy migrates into the working material (+Q).
Once the refrigerant and refrigerated environment are in thermal
equilibrium, the cycle can restart.
[9]
4.Processes of magnetic refrigeration
Figure 3 – the conventional gas-compression process is driven by continuously repeating the
four different basic processes shown in this figure.)
(Figure 4 – the magnetic refrigeration cycle comparison. Compression is replaced by adiabatic
magnetisation and expansion by adiabatic demagnetisation.)
In Figure 3 the four basic steps of a conventional
gascompression/expansion refrigeration process are shown. These
[10]
are a compression of a gas, extraction of heat, expansion of the gas,
and injection of heat. The two process steps extraction of heat and
expansion are responsible for a cooling process in two steps. The
main cooling usually occurs through the expansion of the gas. The
steps of a magnetic refrigeration process are analogous. By
comparing Figure 3 with Figure 4, one can see that instead of
compression of a gas, a magnetocaloric material is moved into a
magnetic field and that instead of expansion it is moved out of the
field.
As explained in the previous section, these processes change the
temperature of the material and heat may be extracted, respectively
injected just as in the conventional process.
There are some differences between the two processes. The heat
injection and rejection in a gaseous refrigerant is a rather fast
process, because turbulent motion transports heat very fast.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in the solid magnetocaloric
materials. Here, the transport mechanism for heat is slow molecular
diffusion. Therefore, at present filigree porous structures are
considered to be the best solution to overcome this problem. The
small distances from the central regions of the material to an
adjacent fluid domain, where a heat transport fluid captures the heat
and transports it out of the material, are ideal to make the magnetic
cooling process faster.Furthermore, the not very large adiabatic
temperature differences of magnetocaloric materials will require
more often a design of cascade or regenerative magnetic
refrigerators than in conventional refrigerators and hence require
additional heat transfer steps.
[11]
5.Working material
The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is an intrinsic property of a
magnetic solid. This thermal response of a solid to the application or
removal of magnetic fields is maximized when the solid is near its
magnetic ordering temperature. Thus, the materials considered for
magnetic refrigeration devices should be magnetic materials with a
magnetic phase transition temperature near the temperature region of
interest. For refrigerators that could be used in the home, this
temperature is room temperature. The temperature change can be further
increased when the order-parameter of the phase transition changes
strongly within the temperature range of interest.
The magnitudes of the magnetic entropy and the adiabatic
temperature changes are strongly dependent upon the magnetic ordering
process. The magnitude is generally small
in antiferromagnets, ferrimagnets and spin glass systems but can be
much larger for ferromagnets that undergo a magnetic phase transition.
First order phase transitions are characterized by a discontinuity in the
magnetization changes with temperature, resulting in a latent
heat. Second order phase transitions do not have this latent heat
associated with the phase transition.
In the late 1990s Pecharksy and Gschneidner reported a magnetic
entropy change in Gd5si2Ge2
that was about 50% larger than that reported for Gd metal, which had
the largest known magnetic entropy change at the time. This giant
magnetocaloric effect (GMCE) occurred at 270K, which is lower than
that of Gd (294K). Since the MCE occurs below room temperature these
materials would not be suitable for refrigerators operating at room
temperature.
[12]
Since then other alloys have also demonstrated the giant
magnetocaloric effec.
These are include Gd
5(SixGe1−x)4, La(FexSi1−x)13Hx and MnFeP1−,x alloys,. Gadolinium
and its alloys undergo second-order phase transitions that have no
magnetic or thermal hysteresis. However, the use of rare earth elements
makes these materials very expensive. Ni 2Mn-X (X = Ga, Co, In, Al,
Sb) Heusler alloys are also promising candidates for magnetic cooling
applications because they have Curie temperatures near room
temperature and, depending on composition, can have martensitic phase
transformations near room temperature. These materials exhibit
the magnetic shape memory effect and can also be used as actuators,
energy harvesting devices, and sensors. When the martensitic
transformation temperature and the Curie temperature are the same
(based on composition) the magnitude of the magnetic entropy change
is the largest. In February 2014, GE announced the development of a
functional Ni-Mn-based magnetic refrigerator.
The development of this technology is very material-dependent and
will likely not replace vapor-compression refrigeration without
significantly improved materials that are cheap, abundant, and exhibit
much larger magnetocaloric effects over a larger range of temperatures.
Such materials need to show significant temperature changes under a
field of two tesla or less, so that permanent magnets can be used for the
production of the magnetic field.
Paramegnetic salts:
The original proposed refrigerant was a paramagnetic salt, such
as cerium magnesium nitrate. The active magnetic dipoles in this case
are those of the electron shells of the paramagnetic atoms .In a
[13]
paramagnetic salt ADR, the heat sink is usually provided by a
pumped .He(about1.2 K)or He (about0.3 K) cryostat. An easily
attainable 1 T magnetic field is generally required for initial
magnetization. The minimum temperature attainable is determined by
the self-magnetization tendencies of the refrigerant salt, but
temperatures from 1 to 100 mK are accessible. Dilution
refrigerators had for many years supplanted paramagnetic salt ADRs,
but interest in space-based and simple to use lab-ADRs has remained,
due to the complexity and unreliability of the dilution refrigerator
Eventually paramagnetic salts become either diamagnetic or
ferromagnetic, limiting the lowest temperature that can be reached
using this method.
Nuclear demagnetization:
One variant of adiabatic demagnetization that continues to find
substantial research application is nuclear demagnetization
refrigeration (NDR). NDR follows the same principles, but in this
case the cooling power arises from the magnetic dipoles of the
nuclei of the refrigerant atoms, rather than their electron
configurations. Since these dipoles are of much smaller magnitude,
they are less prone to self-alignment and have lower intrinsic
minimum fields. This allows NDR to cool the nuclear spin system to
very low temperatures, often 1 µK or below. Unfortunately, the small
magnitudes of nuclear magnetic dipoles also makes them less
inclined to align to external fields. Magnetic fields of 3 teslas or
greater are often needed for the initial magnetization step of NDR.
In NDR systems, the initial heat sink must sit at very low
temperatures (10–100 mK). This precooling is often provided by the
mixing chamber of a dilution refrigerator or a paramagnetic salt.
[14]
6.Commercial development
Research and a demonstration proof of concept in 2001
succeeded in applying commercial-grade materials and permanent
magnets at room temperatures to construct a magnetocaloric
refrigerator.
On August 20, 2007, the Risø National Laboratory (Denmark)
at the Technical University of Denmark, claimed to have reached a
milestone in their magnetic cooling research when they reported a
temperature span of 8.7 K. They hope to introduce the first
commercial applications of the technology by 2010.
As of 2013 this technology had proven commercially viable
only for ultra-low temperature cryogenic applications available for
decades. Magnetocaloric refrigeration systems are composed of
pumps, motors, secondary fluids, heat exchangers of different types,
magnets and magnetic materials. These processes are greatly affected
by irreversibilities and should be adequately considered.
At year-end, Cooltech Applications announced that its first
commercial refrigeration equipment would enter the market in 2014.
At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a consortium
of Haier,Astronautics Corporation of America andBASF presented
the first cooling appliance. BASF claim of their technology a 35%
improvement over using compressors.
[15]
Current & future uses:
Thermal and magnetic hysteresis problems remain to be solved
for first-order phase transition materials that exhibit the GMCE.
One potential application is in spacecraft.
Vapor-compression refrigeration units typically achieve performance
coefficients of 60% of that of a theoretical ideal Carnot cycle, much
higher than current MR technology. Small domestic refrigerators are
however much less efficient.
In 2014 giant anisotropic behaviour of the magnetocaloric effect
wasfound in (Ho(Mn)2O5 ) at 10 K. The anisotropy of the magnetic
entropy change gives rise to a large rotating MCE offering the
possibility to build simplified, compact, and efficient magnetic
cooling systems by rotating it in a constant magnetic field.
7.Hystorical background
The effect was discovered using nickel in 1917 by French
physicist Pierre Weiss and Auguste Piccard. Originally, the cooling
effect was less than 0.5 K/T.
Major advances first appeared in the late 1920s when cooling
via adiabatic demagnetization was independently proposed by Peter
Debye in 1926 and chemistry Nobel LaureateWilliam F. Giauque in
1927.
It was first demonstrated experimentally by Giauque and his
colleague D. P. MacDougall in 1933 for cryogenic purposes when
they reached 0.25 K. Between 1933 and 1997, advances in MCE
cooling occurred.
[16]
In 1997, the first near room-temperature proof of
concept magnetic refrigerator was demonstrated by Karl A.
Gschneidner, Jr. by the Iowa State University at Ames Laboratory.
This event attracted interest from scientists and companies worldwide
who started developing new kinds of room temperature materials and
magnetic refrigerator designs.
A major breakthrough came 2002 when a group at the
University of Amsterdam demonstrated the giant magnetocaloric
effect in MnFe(P,As) alloys that are based on abundant materials.
Refrigerators based on the magnetocaloric effect have been
demonstrated in laboratories, using magnetic fields starting at 0.6 T
up to 10 T. Magnetic fields above 2 T are difficult to produce with
permanent magnets and are produced by a superconducting
magnet (1 T is about 20,000 times the Earth's magnetic field).
8.Megnetothermodynamic machines
Application of the GMCE calls for a magnetic field change in a
magnetocaloric material. This can be performed using different magnetic
refrigeration principles:
• alternatively changing magnetic fields in static blocks of
magnetocaloric material by application of electromagnets
• rectilinear motion of magnetocaloric material with static permanent
magnet assemblies
• rectilinear motion of permanent magnet assemblies with static
magnetocaloric material blocks.
[17]
• rotary motion of magnetocaloric material with static permanent
magnet assemblies
• rotary motion of permanent magnet assemblies with static
magnetocaloric material blocks.
The basic magnetothermodynamic cycles are the Carnot cycle, the
Brayton cycle and the Ericsson cycle. A review of the
magnetothermodynamics of magnetic refrigeration is given in
Reference 8. Also, cascade and regeneration processes are explained.
Another concept is the application of the active magnetic
refrigeration principal (AMR)
[18]
Until now, studies on 28 prototypes have been published and some of their
characteristics were listed (for a partial overview, see Reference 10). One of
the most successful machines was built by Astronautics Corporation, USA.
This rotary type of magnetic refrigerator is operated with a frequency of up
to 4 Hz. It has a magnetic field induction of 1.5 T, is filled with gadolinium
spheres and has a cooling capacity of 95 W with a maximum temperature
span of 20 K
prototypes have been built by the Material Science Institute in
Barcelona, Spain; Chubu Electric/Toshiba, Yokohama, Japan; a
group at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;
Sichuan Institute of Technology/Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;
the Laboratoire d’Electronique Grenoble in Grenoble and Cooltech
Applications, France .
The prototype designed by the University of Victoria applies the
layered bed technique with two different materials. By choosing
different alloys at different positions in the refrigerator, the
performance of the refrigerator is increased.
9.Advantages & disadvantages
The potential advantages of magnetic refrigeration are valid in comparison
with the direct evaporation refrigerating machines:
• “Green” technology, no use of conventional refrigerants.
• Noiseless technology (no compressor). This is an advantage in
certain contexts such as medical applications.
• Higher energy efficiency. Thermodynamic cycles close to Carnot
process are possible due to the reversibility of the MCE.
[19]
• Simple design of machines, e.g. rotary porous heat exchanger
refrigerator.
• Low maintenance costs.
• Low (atmospheric) pressure. This is an advantage in certain
applications such as in air-conditioning and refrigeration units in
automobiles.
On the other hand, some disadvantages include:
• GMCE materials need to be developed to allow higher frequencies
of rectilinear and rotary magnetic refrigerators.
• Protection of electronic components from magnetic fields. But
notice that they are static, of short range and may be shielded.
• Permanent magnets have limited field strength. Electro magnets
and superconducting magnets are (too) expensive.
• Temperature changes are limited. Multi-stage machines lose
efficiency through the heat transfer between the stages.
• Moving machines need high precision to avoid magnetic field
reduction due to gaps between the magnets and the magnetocaloric
material.
10.Possible future application
The list of possible applications involves all domains of refrigeration,
heat pump technology and power conversion. But there are two conditions
which limit the applications of the technology in its current state. The first
is the temperature span. If the difference between the upper and lower
temperature levels is large, then the number of stages becomes also large
and a practical realisation is no longer economic.
[20]
The second condition is the stability of the running conditions. Because the
MCE is limited to a domain around the Curie temperature where the
continuous phase transition occurs, it is difficult to operate magnetic
refrigerating machines under highly fluctuating conditions. More or less
stable temperature levels are required for a reliable and efficient operation
of a magnetic refrigeration system. The potential for cost-effective
magnetocaloric air-conditioning systems was outlined by Russek and Zimm
in the Bulletin of the IIR.
11.Conclusion
Magnetic refrigeration is undoubtedly a promising technology that
should be encouraged because of its numerous advantages, in particular
energy saving and environmental
[21]