Eventos Anais de eventos
ENCIT 2022
19th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering
Magnetic Refrigeration Technology Assessment: Design of a Magnetic Wine Cooler
Submission Author:
Alan Nakashima , SC
Co-Authors:
Alan Nakashima, Elias Pagnan, Natália Maleski de Sá, Anderson Lorenzoni, Glenda de Melo Luz, Gislaine Hoffmann, Guilherme Fidelis Peixer, Jaime Lozano, Jader Riso Barbosa Jr.
Presenter: Alan Nakashima
doi://10.26678/ABCM.ENCIT2022.CIT22-0404
Abstract
Although our physical understanding of the magnetocaloric effect and its applications has increased substantially in the past few decades, much remains to be done regarding the development and evaluation of magnetic refrigeration prototypes operating in relevant environments. In this sense, the Polomag group aims to develop a compact magnetic refrigeration system capable of controlling the temperature of a 31-bottle wine cooler cabinet between 8 °C and 20 °C for an ambient temperature of 25 °C. A preliminary phase of this research consisted of a detailed performance comparison between a magnetic wine cooler prototype and a commercial vapor-compression system, both operating the same insulated cabinet. Performance metrics from this assessment were used to validate a system-level magnetic refrigeration model able to accurately predict the temperature levels and power consumption of the magnetic device. The model was employed in the second phase of the project, which aims at upgrading the magnetic system into a fully integrated “plug-and-play” magnetocaloric wine cooler as efficient as the conventional system at least. In this work, the design of the second version of the magnetic system and its (expected) thermodynamic performance will be presented. The design methodology was built around the system model and a magnet mass minimization routine. Secondary criteria for the efficiency and size of the magnetic cooling unit were also considered. The resulting system is projected to surpass the thermodynamic performance of the previous vapor compression system for lower temperature spans, however, the size of the magnetic unit is still an issue and it represents a key challenge for the future of the magnetic refrigeration in this particular application.
Keywords
Magnetic refrigerator, technology assessment, performance evaluation
