The Magnetocaloric Effect And Its Applications

The magnetocaloric effect describes the change in temperature of a magnetic material under adiabatic conditions through the application or removal of an external magnetic field. This effect is particularly pronounced at temperatures and fields corresponding to magnetic phase transitions, and it is a powerful and widely used tool for investigating t

The impending energy crisis brought on by the running out of finite and non-homogenously distributed fossil fuel reserves and the worldwide increase in energy demand has prompted vast research in the development of sustainable energy technologies in the last few decades. However, the efficiency of most of these new technologies is relatively small and therefore it needs to be increased to eventually replace conventional technologies based on fossil fuels. The required efficiency increase primarily relies on the ability to improve the performance of the functional materials which are at the heart of these technologies. The purpose of this book is to give a unified and comprehensive presentation of the fundamentals and the use and design of novel materials for efficient sustainable energy applications, such as conversion, storage, transmission, and consumption. The book presents general coverage of the use and design of advanced materials for sustainable energy applications. Thus, the book addresses all the relevant aspects, such as materials for energy conversion, storage, transmission, and consumption.

For environmental concerns, it is highly desirable to replace gas-based refrigeration by magnetic refrigeration. Magnetic refrigeration has significant advantages such as small volume, chemical stability, low cost, non-toxicity and not causing sound pollution. Among the pertinent magnetocaloric materials, perovskite manganites are of special interest because they exhibit extremely large magnetic entropy and adiabatic temperature variations, a small thermal or magnetic hysteresis, high chemical stability. Further, the Curie temperature and saturation magnetization can be tailored by changing doping element and doping concentrations. The book references 289 original resources and includes their direct web link for in-depth reading. Keywords: Magnetic Refrigeration, Magnetocaloric Effect, Perovskite Manganites, Perovskite Structure, Magnetic Entropy, Magnetic Hysteresis, Thermal Hysteresis, Chemical Stability, Curie Temperature, Saturation Magnetization, Lanthanides.

The Special Issue “Refrigeration Systems and Applications” aims to encourage researchers to address the concerns associated with climate change and the sustainability of artificial cold production systems, and to further the transition to the more sustainable technologies and methodologies of tomorrow through theoretical, experimental, and review research on the different applications of refrigeration and associated topics.

This book provides the latest research on a new alternative form of technology, the magnetocaloric energy conversion. This area of research concerns magnetic refrigeration and cooling, magnetic heat pumping and magnetic power generation. The book’s systematic approach offers the theoretical basis of magnetocaloric energy conversion and its various sub domains and this is supported with the practical examples. Besides these fundamentals, the book also introduces potential solutions to engineering problems in magnetocalorics and to alternative technologies of solid state energy conversion. The aim of the book is therefore to provide engineers with the most up-to-date information and also to facilitate the understanding, design and construction of future magnetocaloric energy conversion devices. The magnetocaloric energy conversion represents an alternative to compressor based refrigerators and heat pumps. It is a serious alternative to power generation with low enthalpy heat sources. This green technology offers an opportunity to use environmentally friendly solid refrigerants and the potentially high energy efficiency follows the trends of future energy conversion devices. This book is intended for postgraduate students and researchers of refrigeration, heat pumping, power generation alternatives, heat regenerators and advanced heat transfer mechanisms.