Adiabatic temperature change in ErAl2/metal PIT wires: A practical method for estimating the magnetocaloric response of magnetocaloric composites

Abstract

We report the adiabatic temperature change in ErAl 2 magnetocaloric wires fabricated by a powder-in-tube (PIT) process. The adiabatic temperature change of the PIT wires is found to be determined by not only the volume fraction of ErAl 2 core but also the magnitude relationship between the specific heat of the ErAl 2 core and the metal sheath. We propose a quantitative analysis method for calculating the temperature and core volume fraction dependence of adiabatic temperature change in the PIT wire, whose formula is applicable to also various magnetocaloric composites, useful to estimate the magnetocaloric response prior to fabrication.