Performance Testing of a Thermoelectric Cooler for Medical Application

Abstract

Thermoelectric cooler has the advantage of being portable, simple, compact, noiseless, reliable, and environmentally benign. It is quite suitable for transporting and storage for bio-medical products (such as vaccine and blood) which are very sensitive to temperature variation. However, the coefficient of performances (COP) and the cooling capacity of the thermoelectric coolers available in the open market are relatively low. In this study, the effort will be focused on the design of the heat transfer aspect for a thermoelectric blood cooler specific for bio-medical application. Optimized thickness at 0.0025m of a plate fin with length at 0.598m could be obtained through heat transfer analysis. Performance tests have been conducted to investigate the influence of cabinet temperature in the thermoelectric blood cooler. Experimental tests revealed the optimized plate fin can provide satisfactory cooling performance, and to cool down the cabinet until 2°C within 40 minutes. Some tests including different voltage input, loading condition and ambient temperature tests for blood storage have been conducted as well to validate the quality of blood cold chain storage. It is expected that the developed thermoelectric cooler for blood cold chain system will perform stable cold storage and precise temperature control specific for medical application.