Single-objective optimization of thermo-electric coolers using genetic algorithm

Abstract

Thermo-electric Coolers (TECs) nowadays is applied in a wide range of thermal energy systems. This is due to its superior features where no refrigerant and dynamic parts are needed. TECs generate no electrical or acoustical noise and are environment friendly. Over the past decades, many researches were employed to improve the efficiency of TECs by enhancing the material parameters and design parameters. The material parameters are restricted by currently available materials and module fabricating technologies. Therefore, the main objective of TECs design is to determine a set of design parameters such as leg area, leg length and the number of legs. Two elements that play an important role when considering the suitability of TECs in applications are rated of refrigeration (ROR) and coefficient of performance (COP). In this paper, the review of some previous researches will be conducted to see the diversity of optimization in the design of TECs in enhancing the performance and efficiency. After that, single objective optimization problems (SOP) will be tested first by using Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize geometry properties so that TECs will operate at near optimal conditions. In the future works, multi-objective optimization problems (MOP) using hybrid GA with another optimization technique will be considered to give a better results and compare with previous research such as Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) to see the advantages and disadvantages.