Design and Instrumentation of an Advanced Magnetocaloric Direct Temperature Measurement System

The magnetocaloric temperature change (ΔT_Temp) is an important factor in the performance evaluation of the magnetocaloric material´s magnetocaloric effect (MCE), which has been attracting significant interest due to its application in energy efficient near-room temperature magnetic refrigeration technology with environmentally desirable characteristics. A novel magnetocaloric temperature change test system with fully controlled field, temperature, and time capabilities is designed and analyzed. This test system allows the detailed observations of the applied field effect, sample temperature effect, and time effect on the testing magnetocaloric material. The effectiveness of this test system was evaluated by testing the MCE within sample of Gd turnings. The magnetocaloric temperature change measurements, T_Temp, at various H and Temp was measured and showed numerical and characteristic agreements with literature, thus provided evidence that this test is capable of making conventional measurement as well as new measurements on the material´s dynamic time effects.