A parametric study and performance investigation of thermoelectric refrigeration system using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

Global commercial market forecasted around 45 billion US dollars for refrigeration equipment in 2021. Currently used refrigerants have high global warming potential (GWP); hence, environment-friendly refrigeration system using the Peltier effect is being considered for this research. The thermodynamic refrigeration system has a low coefficient of performance (COP), when compared to chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and hydrofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigeration systems. The design of various models of the thermoelectric refrigerator (TER) is created using ANSYS workbench. Each new design is analysed with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tool by altering insulating materials such as nickel with aluminium foil and polyurethane foam in airflow streamline of thermoelectric refrigeration. Temperature differences obtained between 7.5 and 9.4 °C are tabulated after each run using the finite volume method. Optimization of inner design and insulation material is done by using computational fluid dynamics analysis in the ANSYS FLUENT software. The results of sharp edge design have proved better when compared to partially round edge design and fillet design, 7.85 °C for the cold region and 54.85 °C for the hot region. Further research is expected using the multistage Peltier module and smart temperature control unit to improve the COP of the TER system.