Phase change materials at the cold/hot sides of thermoelectric cooler for temperature control

Abstract

The thermoelectric cooler (TEC) has many potential applications in aerospace. Due to its lower coefficient of performance (COP), TEC consumes much more power than a mechanic cooler with the same cooling capacity does. To increase the COP of TEC and to improve its work reliability, we attached encapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) to the cold/hot sides of TEC directly, and several temperature control structures were formed. Temperatures at the cold/hot sides of TECs would be maintained within a designed range. The temperature control performances of these structures were experimentally investigated. The results show that the use of PCM at the hot side of TEC prolongs its operation time over twice than that without PCM. And the COP of TEC is increased more than 100%. The temperature at the cold side of TEC rises dramatically with the power failure, but if the encapsulated PCM is attached to the cold side, this phenomenon will not happen. It is demonstrated that the use of PCM could significantly improve TEC's temperature control performance and work reliability.