Influence of Heat Exchanger Design on the Thermal Performance of a Domestic Wine Cooler Driven by a Magnetic Refrigeration System

Conventional and not-in-kind refrigerators require heat exchangers for their operation. Yet, most magnetic cooling studies do not take full account of those components despite their importance in defining the cooling capacity and temperature span. To investigate the influence of heat exchanger design parameters on the performance of magnetic refrigerators, a model was developed to integrate the heat exchangers, regenerators and thermal reservoirs. The results were compared with data generated in an apparatus that emulates the conditions of the thermal fluid supplied by the regenerators to a cold heat exchanger positioned inside the cabinet of a retrofitted 130-liter wine cooler. Six tube-fin heat exchangers were evaluated to identify the most suitable geometry (number of tube rows and fin density) for the compact magnetic refrigerator. Numerical simulations described the influence of the heat exchanger on the regenerator performance in terms of the liquid stream effectiveness. For a temperature span of 20 degrees C between the external environment and the refrigerated compartment, the best heat exchanger/fan assembly resulted in a cooling capacity reduction of 37% and a temperature span increase of 32%, in comparison with an idealized system. The expected system coefficient of performance (COP) and second-law efficiency were 1.8% and 13%, respectively.