The extreme high cooling capacity thermoelectric cooler optimal design for kilowatts scale thermoelectric air-conditioner of high-speed railway carriage

Abstract

In recent 20 years, the rapidly development of thermoelectric materials promotes thermoelectric s application in large scale cooling area, i.e. air-conditioner. To provide quiet working environment for the driver of high-speed railway, a kilowatt scale air-conditioner was designed. Firstly, a novel thermoelectric cooler with maximum cooling capacity of 450 W was designed with 199 thermoelectric elements, and the cooling performance were investigated under different cold and hot side heat exchange capacity. Second, the hot and cold side heat exchangers were optimized adopting genetic algorithm. Finally, a high coefficient of performance (COP) thermoelectric air conditioning (TEAC) system was designed for high-speed railway locomotive. The TEAC system comprising 16 TECs achieved a cooling capacity of 2342 W with a COP of 0.5 in cooling mode, and meets one 1HP TEAC requirements. The temperature field inside the locomotive was uniform and exhibited a linear correlation with the supplied air temperature. This research demonstrates the utility of high-power TEAC in high-speed railway carriages, providing valuable insights for the application of TEAC technology.