Ferrofluidic thermal switch in a magnetocaloric device

Katja Klinar; Katja Vozel; Timm Swoboda; Tom Sojer; Miguel Muñoz Rojo; Andrej Kitanovski

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.103779

Ferrofluidic thermal switch in a magnetocaloric device

iScience. 2022 Jan 15;25(2):103779. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103779. eCollection 2022 Feb 18.

Authors

Katja Klinar¹, Katja Vozel¹, Timm Swoboda², Tom Sojer¹, Miguel Muñoz Rojo^{2

3}, Andrej Kitanovski¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Askerceva 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
² Department of Thermal and Fluid Engineering, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Overijssel, the Netherlands.
³ Instituto de Micro y Nanotecnología, IMN-CNM, CSIC (CEI UAM+CSIC), Calle Isaac Newton 8, 28760 Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain.

Abstract

Thermal switches are advanced heat-management devices that represent a new opportunity to improve the energy efficiency and power density of caloric devices. In this study we have developed a numerical model to analyze the operation and the performance of static thermal switches in caloric refrigeration. The investigation comprises a parametric analysis of a realistic ferrofluidic thermal switch in terms of the maximum temperature span, cooling power, and coefficient of performance. The highest achieved temperature span between the heat source and the heat sink was 1.12 K for a single embodiment, which could be further developed into a regenerative system to increase the temperature span. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to correlate the relationship between the input parameters and the results. We show that thermal switches can be used in caloric devices even when switching ratios are small, which greatly extends the possibilities to implement different types of thermal switches.

Keywords: Energy engineering; Materials science; Thermal engineering; Thermal property.