Abstract
In this work, we show a general approach for inhomogeneous composite thermoelectric systems, and as an illustrative case, we consider a dual thermoelectric cooler. This composite cooler consists of two thermoelectric modules (TEMs) connected thermally in parallel and electrically in series. Each TEM has different thermoelectric (TE) properties, namely thermal conductance, electrical resistance and the Seebeck coefficient. The system is coupled by thermal conductances to heat reservoirs. The proposed approach consists of derivation of the dimensionless thermoelectric properties for the whole system. Thus, we obtain an equivalent figure of merit whose impact and meaning is discussed. We make use of dimensionless equations to study the impact of the thermal conductance matching on the cooling capacity and the coefficient of the performance of the system. The equivalent thermoelectric properties derived with our formalism include the external conductances and all intrinsic thermoelectric properties of each component of the system. Our proposed approach permits us changing the thermoelectric parameters of the TEMs and the working conditions of the composite system. Furthermore, our analysis shows the effect of the number of thermocouples on the system. These considerations are very useful for the design of thermoelectric composite systems. We reproduce the qualitative behavior of a commercial composite TEM connected electrically in series.
Highlights
Composite thermoelectric systems, based on thermoelectric effects, such as Seebeck effect and Peltier effect, have a variety of uses nowadays
We study the effect of the thermal conductance matching on the cooling capacity qc and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the TEC system
Using our proposed approach to analyze a composite TEC system, formed by two thermoelectric modules (TEMs), with different thermoelectric properties each, connected thermally in parallel and electrically in series, equivalent thermoelectric properties have been derived. These equivalent properties depend on all thermoelectric parameters of the composite TEC system, namely Seebeck coefficients, α(1,2), thermal conductivity, K(1,2), the electrical resistance, R(1,2), of each TEM and external thermal conductances
Summary
Composite thermoelectric systems, based on thermoelectric effects, such as Seebeck effect and Peltier effect, have a variety of uses nowadays. They concluded that dimensionless parameters reduce the complexity of the results, enabling the evaluation of the system without knowing the detailed information of the geometries or the materials These proposals consider homogeneous TECS, i.e., TECS with thermoelectric modules (TEMs) that have the same thermoelectric properties, namely the Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistance and thermal conductance. We illustrate this general approach for a dual thermoelectric cooling system that consists of two TEMs with different thermoelectric properties and thermal coupling This approach can be useful for designing a composite solid-state device with thermal coupling for switching between low power consumption or high heat pumping performance [13].
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