Research on performance of new separated thermoelectric cooler at different pulse currents

Abstract

This paper studies the performance of a novel split thermoelectric cooler under the different pulsed electrical currents. The investigation focuses on analyzing changes in the cold side temperature of thermoelectric cooler when subjected to different pulse forms. The three-dimensional heat transfer model established through COMSOL was used to investigate the new thermoelectric cooler. The study focused on analyzing the impacts of pulse amplitude, pulse period, pulse waveform, and heat dissipation conditions on the performance of split cooler. The results show that the cooling temperature of split component can be reduced by about 13 K at constant electrical current compared with the conventional component. The temperature of the separated component can be decreased by an additional 2–5 K through the application of pulsed current. The triangle pulse is the best choice for the split component under continuous pulse when the heat dissipation is insufficient. The split thermoelectric component can work more smoothly by using the slant drop triangle pulse compared with the optimized triangle pulse form. The performance of the split thermoelectric component is optimal under a square pulse when there is adequate heat dissipation.