EE11Tutorial

Part I: Antoni Planes
Part I provided a general introduction to caloric effects, followed by the development of a thermodynamic framework to deal with multicaloric effects in multiferroic (magnetoelectric and magnetostructural) materials. It was shown that giant caloric effects are expected to occur in the vicinity of phase transitions. Results were illustrated for systems described by a Landau free energy with two coupled order parameters. Finally, the relevance of dissipative effects and hysteresis were considered.

Part II: Andrej Kitanovski
In recent years, several caloric technologies have been investigated for future refrigeration, heat pumping, air conditioning or even energy harvesting. Many of these technologies suggest the possibility for improvements in energy efficiency, compactness and noise level, as well as a reduction in environmental impacts. Therefore, they represent serious alternatives to the rather mature domain of a vapor-compression technology.

Part II reviewed the present status and engineering challenges of different caloric refrigeration and heat pump technologies. It addressed and explained the main obstacles and introduced potential solutions, then proposed future research directions and actions needed to overcome existing barriers toward the real market applications. This segment concluded with a presentation of the most interesting market niches for the earlier industrialization of the caloric energy conversion.

Instructors

• Antoni Planes, University of Barcelona
• Andrej Kitanovski, University of Ljubljana