Recent Progress in the Application of Magnetic Regenerator Materials

Various magnetic materials have a large peak in heat capacity C(T) in the vicinity of liquid helium temperature at 7c (magnetic phase transition temperature). However, a single magnetic material is not sufficient for regenerative operations since the peak in C(T) is narrow. Therefore, an important consideration in the development of a magnetic regenerator is the sequencing of the magnetic materials so as to produce the best C(T) distribution. To find out the highest heat exchange effectiveness of a regenerator (regenerator effectiveness), a study was conducted into the effectiveness of multi-layer regenerators composed of several rare-earth compounds with different T C by computer simulation.