Magnetic refrigeration is a potentially environmentally-friendly alternative to vapor compression technology because it has a potentially higher coefficient of performance and does not use a gaseous refrigerant. The active magnetic regenerator refrigerator is currently the most common magnetic refrigeration device for near room temperature applications, and it is driven by the magnetocaloric effect in the regenerator material. Several magnetocaloric materials with potential magnetic refrigeration applications have recently been developed and characterized; however, few of them have been tested in an experimental device. This paper compares the performance of three magnetocaloric material candidates for AMRs, La(Fe,Co,Si)13, (La,Ca,Sr)MnO3 and Gd, in an experimental active magnetic regenerator with a parallel plate geometry. The performance of single-material regenerators of each magnetocaloric material family were compared. In an attempt to improve system performance, graded two-material regenerators were made from two different combinations of La(Fe,Co,Si)13 compounds having different magnetic transition temperatures. One combination of the La(Fe,Co,Si)13 materials yielded a higher performance, while the performance of the other combination was lower than the single-material regenerator. The highest no-load temperature span was achieved by the Gd regenerator.
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