The thesis deals with shell and tube heat exchangers, which would be suitable for use in magnetic cooling technology. In addition to the magnetic field source and the magnetocaloric material, heat exchangers are also important elements of magnetic refrigerators. They are utilized for extraction of heat from the cooled environment to the magnetocaloric material and further heat dissipation to the ambient. We designed and developed two different shell and tube heat exchangers. The first was made entirely by a 3D printing process using stereolithography, while the second had copper tubes and a housing made by using a stereolithography process. We set up a measuring track and experimentally verified and compared the thermo-hydraulic properties of the investigated heat exchangers. On the basis of the experimental analysis, we further upgraded and experimentally evaluated the more efficient concept of the heat exchanger. At the end, the work gives the key features for achieving the highest possible effectiveness of heat exchangers for magnetic cooling and provides guidelines for further work.
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