Investigation of the impact of the thermoelectric geometry on the cooling performance and thermal—mechanic characteristics in a thermoelectric cooler

Abstract

Owing to the advantages of small size, stable operational performance, and precise control of temperature, the thermoelectric cooler (TEC) has been widely applied to electronics, aerospace and other fields where effective thermal management is required. As the critical factors for electrical resistance and thermal resistance, the geometrical dimension and shape have significant impact on the cooling performance and thermal-mechanic characteristics of the TEC, which is investigated hardly in the previous TEC studies. To fill this gap, the paper reports the development and operation of a novel three-dimensional model for the TECs with 10 different leg geometries. Based on the dimensions of a commercial TEC, a simulation was undertaken, thus working out the correlations between the geometry and other relevant parameters, e.g., cooling capacity and COP. Furthermore, the thermal stress of the TEC was investigated to evaluate the impact of the TEC geometrical dimension on its lifespan. Compared to initial TEC leg, the novel module (g) demonstrates a significant cooling capacity improvement, which increase from 0.1429 W to 0.1557 W (18.15 W–19.78 W for device level) by 8.9% under temperature difference of 50 K. Under the extreme working condition, e.g., the ΔT is 90 K, the cooling capacity improved 34.9%, which increase from 0.0286 W to 0.0386 W (3.63 W–4.9 W for device level).