Jerry W. Decker wrote:
> Hi Folks!
>
> Anton Rager posted this to freenrg, it is directly in line with recent
> discussions here about pyromagnetics and such. Magnetocaloric is a
> phenomenon first described to me by Jack Veach. He said it used a very
> thick ceramic cylinder that surrounds an energy generator that puts off
> a lot of heat while producing current. A 'swept' magnetic field, moving
> from the inside (where it's very hot) to the outside, through the
> ceramic, will carry the heat with it.
> -----------------
> Hello All,
>
> New idea occurred to me while reading the latest [May 98] Scientific
> American. It's also online - see:
>
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/1998/0598issue/0598techbus5.html
> [it has a couple typos -- iron has a Curie closer to 770deg C]
>
> There is brief blurb about a new type of refridgerator that uses very
> strong magnetic fields [superconducting magnets] and the magnetocaloric
> effect as a heat exchanger. This idea by itself is somewhat
> interesting....but the coolest part [no pun intended] is that
> it uses Gadolinium for the magnetocaloric effect.
>
> I will assume that everyone else is just as ignorant as I am about
> magnetocaloric effect and properties of Gadolinium. If not....then
> ignore the following discussion.....
>
> 1 - Magnetocaloric Effect: magnetic fields applied to a ferromagnetic
> material will increase the temperature of the ferromagnetic material.
>
> 2 - Gadolinium: Ferromagnetic material [element] that has two very
> important properties.....
> - out of all the other ferromagnetic materials, it exibits the
> strongest magnetocaloric effect.
> - it's curie temperature is about room temperature [20deg C/68deg F]
>
> Now -- I have a few questions.
>
> - Can a static magnetic field [read - strong permananet magnet]
> applied to the ferromagnetic material induce a magnetocaloric
> effect...or does it need to be pulsed?
> - Any ideas on how strong a magnetic field needs to be applied to see
> the magnetocaloric effect? Is there a formula -- #degrees incease
> relative to applied field?
>
> Also have some prelim ideas.....
> - Perhaps a magnetic motor could utilize the magnetocaloric effect and
> Gadolinium's low Curie point...imagine a curved array of strong
> magnets as a stator, with Gadolinium nodes on the rotor.....as the
> rotor node passes thru the array, it heats up to the Curie point.
> This allows the rotor node to pass thru the strongest part of the
> array field and into a regauging area. It cools slightly in the
> reguage area, and then enters the magnetic array again. This would be
> an extremely temperamental system, but might work in my basement?
>
> Ahhhh......I just love free-associating! All for now,
> == Anton Rager - a_rager@yahoo.com
> --
> Jerry W. Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com
> http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science"
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