A Comparative Heat Transfer Study of Gadolinium and (MnNiSi)1-x(Fe2Ge)x Alloy for Thermomagnetic Energy Generator

Utilizing and harvesting low grade heat energy with efficient methods has been a challenge for scientists for decades, as with several designs and materials studied the models still pose hurdles in producing usable energy, manufacturing, and affordability. The present work focuses on a comparative study for the heat transfer model of a thermomagnetic energy generator design by using a thermomagnetic material, i.e., an alloy (MnNiSi)0.68(Fe2Ge)0.32 and a reference material taken as Gadolinium (Gd). Thermomagnetic energy generator has shown great potential in the field of low-grade energy harvesting due to their ability to convert thermal energy into electrical energy. Developed model of thermomagnetic material which is made to oscillate between a strong permanent magnet and a heat sink. The parameters considered for the transient study are the gap distance between the heat source and sink, and the shape of the thermomagnetic material used, where the results are presented as plots of temperature with respect to time for a single cycle in steady state, and for multiple cycles. These parameters are optimized to maximize the performance of the thermomagnetic harvester. Our analysis indicates the advancement of Thermomagnetic alloy (MnNiSi)0.68(Fe2Ge)0.32 over the bench mark material Gadolinium in the enhancement of performance over the low temperature energy harvesting application.