Experimental study of LaFeCoSi and LaFeCoSi with Gd multi-layered active magnetic regenerators

LaFeCoSi alloys are one of the most promising refrigerants for application in magnetic cooling systems. The materials exhibit large magnetocaloric effect and their Curie temperature can be easily adjusted by substitution of iron with cobalt. In this paper we investigate two multi-layered active magnetic regenerators. One is built out of fifteen LaFeCoSi compounds with different composition. The other one is composed of nine different LaFeCoSi compounds and Gd. The working temperature range is very wide, from 3.72 °C to 29.00 °C and from 3.72 °C to 18.90 °C, respectively. Alloys are applied in form of plates and the total mass of one regenerator is 650 g. In order to test the materials the Cristal 2 system is used. The prototype is equipped with Halbach arrays that generate magnetic field of about 1.5 T in the air gap. It can work with one and two regenerators at the same time. The performed experiments have shown that multi-layered active magnetic regenerators are interesting solution for magnetic cooling systems. Obtained results are compared with Gd regenerator.