Abstract
Over the past years, thermoelectric refrigeration has attracted considerable attention due to its compact size, reliability, and environmental friendliness. Traditional refrigeration systems use greenhouse gases, which significantly impacts our environment. Therefore, in this work, a thermoelectric cooler prototype refrigeration system, a solid-state device causing no harm to the environment, was constructed and tested experimentally. A heat sink was attached to the cold side of the thermoelectric cooler (TEC) to cool the air passing through the heat sink. In contrast, a cold plate was attached to the hot side of TEC to remove the generated heat with the help of the liquid circulating in the aluminium cold plate. Experiments were carried out by varying parameters such as input current to the TEC module, inlet air flow rate, water flow rate through the cold plate, etc. The experimental results indicate that the cooling effect is increased by approximately 40%, increasing current from 2A to 8A. However, the cooling effect was decreased with increasing inlet airflow rate by 58% when airflow rate increased from 2.25 m/s to 3.55 m/s. However, the system performance shows approximately 35% increment with an increase in fan speed. Furthermore, a decrease in the water flow rate from 3.04 L/m to 1.80 L/m showed a slight increment in the cooling by 15%.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
One of the reasons for this can be that once the flow rate drops, it has more time to interact with hot surface and the heat removal rate increases as the amount of heat carried by the water increases based on the heat capacity of the liquid
The present work presents a new cooling design concept using thermoelectric cooler (TEC) technology. This experimental investigation had two main objectives: (i) to cool down the air in an air duct channel for cooling purposes and (ii) use the heat from the liquid coming out from the cold plate for heating purposes. Various parameters such as input current and water flow rates were varied to examine the effect on system behavior
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Two sinks are attached to the hot and cold side of the module to improve the system performance and heat transfer rate of TEC [2]. An experimental investigation was carried out to examine the effect of COP and other cooling parameters by Yadollah et al [9] and Yakut [10] for the general application. An experimental and theoretical investigation was carried out by Kobus and Oshio [14] to examine the thermal performance of the pin-fin heat sink. A theoretical study of a TEC designed for small space cooling applications for the buildings was carried out by GIllot et al [16] to find the maximum operating conditions; Maneewan et al [17] and Cherkez [18] evaluate the cooling performance and thermal comfort of TE air conditioner based upon the cooling thermoelements. The present work investigates the system’s cooling performance by using different parameters such as input current, liquid flow rate, inlet air fan speed, etc
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