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Magnetic refrigeration is being developed to determine whether it may be used as an alternative to the Joule-Thomson circuit of a closed cycle refrigerator for providing 4 K refrigeration. An engineering model 4-15 K magnetic refrigerator has been designed and is being fabricated. This article describes the overall design of the magnetic refrigerator.
The development of a multifrequency upconverter-maser system for the DSN has created the need to develop a closed-cycle refrigerator (CCR) capable of providing more than 3 watts of refrigeration capability at 4.5 K. In addition, operating concerns such as the high cost of electrical power consumption and the loss of maser operation due to CCR failures require that improvements be made to increase the efficiency and reliability of the CCR. One refrigeration method considered is the replacement of the Joule-Thomson expansion circuit with a magnetic refrigeration. Magnetic refrigerators can provide potentially reliable and highly efficient refrigeration at a variety of temperature ranges and cooling power. The concept of magnetic refrigeration is summarized and a literature review of existing magnetic refrigerator designs which have been built and tested and that may also be considered as possibilities as a 4 K to 15 K magnetic refrigeration stage for the DSN closed-cycle refrigerator is provided.
A 4 to 15 K magnetic refrigerator to test as an alternative to the Joule-Thomson circuit as the low temperature stage of a 4 to 300 K closed-cycle refrigerator was developed. The reciprocating magnetic refrigerator consists of two matrices of gadolinium gallium garnet spheres located in tandem on a single piston which alternately moves each matrix into a 7 telsa magnetic field. A separate helium gas circuit is used as the heat exchange mechanism for the low and the high temperature extremes of the magnetic refrigerator. Details of the design and results of the initial refrigerator component tests are presented.
A supercritical helium testing system for a magnetic refrigerator has been built. Details of the supercritical helium pump, the test system, and the test instrumentation are given. Actual pump tests were not run during this ASEE term because of delivery problems associated with the required pump flow meter. Consequently, efforts were directed on preliminary design of the magnetic refrigeration system for the pump. The first concern with the magnetic refrigerator design was determining how to effectively make use of the pump. A method to incorporate the supercritical helium pump into a magnetic refrigerator was determined by using a computer model. An illustrated example of this procedure is given to provide a tool for sizing the magnetic refrigerator system as a function of the pump size. The function of the computer model and its operation are also outlined and discussed.
A document describes a continuous magnetic refrigerator that is suited for cooling astrophysics detectors. This refrigerator has the potential to provide efficient, continuous cooling to temperatures below 50 mK for detectors, and has the benefits over existing magnetic coolers of reduced mass because of faster cycle times, the ability to pump the cooled fluid to remote cooling locations away from the magnetic field created by the superconducting magnet, elimination of the added complexity and mass of heat switches, and elimination of the need for a thermal bus and single crystal paramagnetic materials due to the good thermal contact between the fluid and the paramagnetic material. A reliable, thermodynamically efficient pump that will work at 1.8 K was needed to enable development of the new magnetic refrigerator. The pump consists of two canisters packed with pieces of gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG). The canisters are connected by a superleak (a porous piece of VYCOR glass). A superconducting magnetic coil surrounds each of the canisters. The configuration enables driving of cyclic thermodynamic cycles (such as the sub-Kelvin Active Magnetic Regenerative Refrigerator) without using pistons or moving parts.
The design of a magnetic refrigerator for space applications is discussed. The refrigerator is to operate in the temperature range of 10 K-2 K, at a 2 K cooling power of 0.10 W. As in other magnetic refrigerators operating in this temperature range GGG has been selected as the refrigerant. Crucial to the design of the magnetic refrigerator are the heat switches at both the hot and cold ends of the GGG pill. The 2 K heat switch utilizes a narrow He II filled gap. The 10 K heat switch is based on a narrow helium gas gap. For each switch, the helium in the gap is cycled by means of activated carbon pumps. The design concentrates on reducing the switching times of the pumps and the switches as a whole. A single stage system (one magnet; one refrigerant pill) is being developed. Continuous cooling requires the fully stationary system to have at least two stages running parallel/out of phase with each other. In order to conserve energy, it is intended to recycle the magnetic energy between the magnets. To this purpose, converter networks designed for superconducting magnetic energy storage are being studied.
The application of refrigeration at low temperatures ranging from production of liquid helium for medical imaging systems to cooling of infrared sensors on surveillance satellites is discussed. Cooling below about 15 K with regenerative refrigerators is difficult because of the decreasing thermal mass of the regenerator compared to that of the working material. In order to overcome this difficulty with helium gas as the working material, a heat exchanger plus a Joule-Thomson or other exponder is used. Regenerative magnetic refrigerators with magnetic solids as the working material have the same regenerator problem as gas refrigerators. This problem provides motivation for the development of nonregenerative magnetic refrigerators that span approximately 1 K to approximately 0 K. Particular emphasis is placed on high reliability and high efficiency. Calculations indicate considerable promise in this area. The principles, the potential, the problems, and the progress towards development of successful 4 to 20 K magnetic refrigerators are discussed.
This invention relates to magnetocaloric materials comprising alloys useful for magnetic refrigeration applications. In some embodiments, the disclosed alloys may be Cerium, Neodymium, and/or Gadolinium based compositions that are fairly inexpensive, and in some cases exhibit only 2nd order magnetic phase transitions near their curie temperature, thus there are limited thermal and structural hysteresis losses. This makes these compositions attractive candidates for use in magnetic refrigeration applications. Surprisingly, the performance of the disclosed materials is similar or better to many of the known expensive rare-earth based magnetocaloric materials.
Eddy current heating can be a significant source of parasitic heating in low temperature magnetic refrigerators. To study this problem a technique to approximate the heating due to eddy currents has been developed. A formula is presented for estimating the heating within a variety of shapes commonly found in magnetic refrigerators. These shapes include circular, square, and rectangular rods; cylindrical and split cylindrical shells; wire loops; and 'coil foil. One set of components evaluated are different types of thermal radiation shields. This comparison shows that a simple split shield is almost as effective (only 23 percent more heating) as using a shield, with the same axial thermal conductivity, made of 'coil foil'.
Much of the most interesting information regarding our universe is hidden in the sub-millimeter, infrared, and x-rays bands of the spectrum, to which our atmosphere is largely opaque. Thus, missions exploring these bands are a very important part of NASA s Space Science program. Coincidentally, the most sensitive detectors in these spectral regions operate at extremely low temperatures, typically 0.05 - 0.10 K. Generally these temperatures will be achieved using magnetic refrigerators, also know as Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerators, or ADRs. Current ADRs, such as the one used in the XRS-II instrument on the Astro-E2 satellite, use a single-stage to cool detectors from 1.3 K to 0.06 K. The ADR is designed so that it can absorb the heat on the detector stage for at least 24 hours before it must stop, warm up to the helium bath temperature (1.3 K), and dump the accumulated heat. Future detector arrays will be much larger and will have higher heat dissipation. Furthermore, future missions will use mechanical cryocoolers to provide upper stage cooling, but they can only reach 4 - 10 K. Trying to scale heavy (-15 kg) single stage ADRs up to the higher heat loads and higher heat rejection temperatures required leads to unacceptably large systems. The GSFC Cryogenics Branch has developed the Continuous ADR (CADR) to solve this problem. The CADR consists of a series of ADR stages that sequentially pass heat from the load up to the high temperature heat sink. The stage connected to the load remains at a constant temperature. The continuous stage effectively decouples detector operation from ADR operation, allowing the ADR stages to be cycled much more rapidly. Rapid cycling leads to higher cooling power density. The cascading, multistage arrangement allows the magnetic refrigerant of each stage to be optimized for its own temperature swing. In the past year, we have made good progress toward a 0.05 to 10K system. A four-stage system that operates from 4.2 K was demonstrated. Magnetic shielding was added to eliminate inter-stage coupling. Improvements were made to superconducting and passive gas-gap heat switches. A second type of passive gas gap switch, one meant for use at higher temperature, was demonstrated. The presentation will focus primarily on these recent design improvements, and on the challenges that remain on the progress toward a system that will operate from 10 K or higher.
Low temperature refrigeration is an increasingly vital technology for NASA's Space Science program since most detectors being developed for x-ray, IR and sub-millimeter missions must be cooled to below 100 mK in order to meet the requirements for energy and spatial resolution. For space applications, magnetic refrigeration has an inherent advantage over alternative techniques because it does not depend on gravity. Adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators, or ADRs, are relatively simple, solid state devices. The basic elements are a magnetocaloric refrigerant (usually an encapsulated paramagnetic salt) located in the bore of a superconducting magnet, and a heat switch linking the salt to a heat sink. The alignment of magnetic spins with the magnetic field causes the refrigerant to warm as the magnetic field increases and cool as the field decreases. Thus the simple process of magnetizing the refrigerant to high field with the heat switch closed, then demagnetizing it with the heat switch open allows one to obtain temperatures well below 100 mK using a heat sink as warm as 4.2 K. The refrigerant can maintain a low temperature for a length of time depending on the applied and parasitic heat loads, its mass, and the initial magnetic field strength. Typically ADRs are designed for 12-24 hours of hold time, after which they must be warmed up and recycled.
Low temperature refrigeration is an increasingly vital technology for NASA s Space Science program since most detectors being developed for x-ray, IR and sub-millimeter missions must be cooled to below 100 mK in order to meet the requirements for energy and spatial resolution. For space applications, magnetic refrigeration has an inherent advantage over alternative techniques because it does not depend on gravity. Adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators, or ADRs, are relatively simple, solid state devices. The basic elements are a magnetocaloric refrigerant (usually an encapsulated paramagnetic salt) located in the bore of a superconducting magne$, and a heat switch linking the salt to a heat sink. The alignment of magnetic spins with the magnetic field causes the refrigerant to warm as the magnetic field increases and cool as the field decreases. Thus the simple process of magnetizing the refrigerant to high field with the heat switch closed, then demagnetizing it with the heat switch open allows one to obtain temperatures well below 100 mK using a heat sink as warm as 4.2 K. The refrigerant can maintain a low temperature for a length of time depending on the applied and parasitic heat loads, its mass, and the initial magnetic field strength. Typically ADRs are designed for 12-24 hours of hold time, after which they must be warmed up and recycled. The drawback to single-shot ADRs is that the cooling power per unit mass is relatively low. Refrigerants that are suitable for low temperature operation necessarily have low magnetic ion density, and therefore low entropy density. Since ADRs store entropy, systems with even modest cooling powers (a few microwatts) at temperatures below 100 mK tend to be massive, averaging 10-15 kg.
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for a magnetic refrigeration system. A continuously reciprocating displacer houses at least a pair of paramagnetic substances each of which is alternately driven into and out of a magnetic field. Two separate bidirectional pumping systems flow helium gas through the displacer and through both paramagnetic substances to create heat exchange conditions at two separate temperature extremes.
The feasibility of using flux compression in high-temperature superconductors to produce the large time-varying magnetic fields required in a field cycled magnetic refrigerator operating between 20 K and 4 K is presently investigated. This paper describes the refrigerator concept and lists limitations and advantages in comparison with conventional refrigeration techniques. The maximum fields obtainable by flux compression in high-temperature supercoductor materials, as presently prepared, are too low to serve in such a refrigerator. However, reports exist of critical current values that are near usable levels for flux pumps in refrigerator applications.
Unit cools to 4 K by adiabatic demagnetization. Two porous matrices of paramagnetic material gadolinium/gallium/garnet held in long piston called displacer, machined out of Micarta (phenol formaldehyde polymer). Holes in side of displacer allow heat-exchange fluid to flow to and through matrices within. Piston seals on displacer prevent substantial mixing of fluid in two loops. Magnetic refrigerator provides continuous rather than "one-shot" cooling.
Measurements were made of the magnetic entropy and magnetization of powered samples of the compounds Dy2Ti2O7 and Gd3Al5O12. The magnetization was measured for temperatures at and below 4.2 K, in applied fields ranging to 7.0 tesla. Isothermal changes in magnetic entropy were measured for temperatures from 1.2 to 20 K, in applied fields up to 10 tesla. The results of the measurements are consistent with a doublet ground state for Dy2Ti2O7, and an eight-fold degenerate ground state for Gd3Al5O12. Absolute values of magnetic entropy have been obtained at the lower temperatures, permitting the isotherms to be properly located in the S-H plane with the use of adiabatic magnetization data. The iso-field lines in the S-T plane were determined. The results indicate that Dy2Ti2O7 can absorb a maximum of 71 + or - 4 joules/kg of heat at 4.2 K, while Gd3Al5O12 can absorb 233 + or - joules/kg at the same temperature. The large difference between the two is most likely a result of crystal field interactions in the dysoprosium compound. Both materials can be cycled adiabatically between 4.2 and 20 K.
In recent years there has been an interest in using adiabatic demagnetization refrigeration in space to cool bolometers to the 0.1-0.3 K temperature range. Two different demagnetization schemes have been proposed for such refrigerators. Both methods start the same way: an isothermal magnetization followed by an adiabatic demagnetization. Once the operating temperature is reached, the two methods differ. The first method uses feedback control to perform an isothermal demagnetization. As reported, this system is limited by the resolution of the analog-to-digital converter used. While the stability of this system is the best reported to date (0.5 mK at 200 mK for 14 h), it is several orders of magnitude worse than the theoretical limit. The second method uses a complete demagnetization and allows the temperature to drift up uncontrolled. This system has the disadvantage that the responsivity and noise of a bolometer will also drift, and so will require continuous recalibration. There is some concern that fluctuations in the temperature control system of the first method would adversely affect the bolometer performance by increasing the system noise. The purpose of this note is to present the ultimate stability limit of an isothermal demagnetization feedback control system.
Various schemes of using adiabatic demagnetization to provide refrigeration in the 10-1000 mK range are discussed with particular reference to the requirements for use in space. The methods considered are complete demagnetization, isothermal demagnetization, moving magnet demagnetization, and continuous refrigeration. The requirements that are important for use in space are low mass, low power dissipation, high mechanical rigidity, modular design, and ease of use.