Thermal management of phase change material integrated thermoelectric cooler with different heat sink geometries

Abstract

The vapour compression refrigeration system has higher efficiency compared to the existing thermoelectric cooling systems. The vapour compression refrigeration system uses refrigerants, which poses threat to the environment and climate cycles. Efforts are being made to make the cooling process environment friendly and the thermoelectric cooling system energy efficient. In this study, a technique to improve the energy efficiency of thermoelectric cooling systems by minimizing its hot side temperature has been proposed. Computational studies were conducted by introducing phase change material in heat sink to study the effect of phase change material on the heat dissipation using ANSYS 18.1. The results show that the hot side temperature of thermoelectric cooler considerably reduced with the use of phase change material as compared to the case of without phase change material. The same analysis has been carried out with different quantities of phase change material in the heat sink, with different heat transfer coefficient and with different heat sink geometries. Results show a significant reduction in hot side temperature and thus, justifying the potential of the phase change material for the thermal management of thermoelectric cooling systems.