Effect of material hysteresis in magnetic refrigeration cycles

In this paper we make use of the concepts of out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics applied to systems with hysteresis in order to model the magnetic material employed as a working substance in magnetic refrigeration cycles. The approach developed leads to a detailed description of heat fluxes as well as the entropy production connected with hysteresis. As an example we discuss Carnot and AMR refrigeration cycles where hysteresis effects are included.