Use Of Thermoelectric Cooler Research Articles

A novel strategy for designing and selecting thermoelectric cooler based on bridge parameters and surrogate model

With the discovery of promising materials, the optimisation of the design and selection of thermoelectric coolers (TEC) can further advance their engineering applications in various fields. Thus, this study proposed two parameters: the device thermal resistance and linear current density of the TEC, to build a direct link between the design, selection, and operation of the TEC. Further, a surrogate model in terms of support vector regression was constructed for TEC to reduce the computing complexity, resources, and time. Thus, an optimal design and selection strategy for TEC was developed for practical multiple application scenarios. Consequently, the influences of the optimisation objective, design electrical current, and hot- and cold-side heat exchangers on the design results were discussed. A case study was conducted to demonstrate the usage method and validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The design, procurement, and operating costs were analysed. The proposed strategy directly transformed design results into selection results with a deviation of <11 %. Further, using the proposed strategy, the design cost was almost negligible, and the procurement and operating costs were reduced by 74.6 % and 46.43 %, respectively. It was found that a designed TEC with a smaller device thermal resistance and higher linear current density could exhibit a higher cooling capacity; otherwise, it could obtain a higher coefficient of performance (COP). Comprehensive cooling performance of TEC designed for multiple working conditions decreased by only 6.3 % under different working conditions. This study bridges the gap between the designing and selection of TEC and helps users choose more efficient and suitable TECs for practical applications, which may further promote the widespread use of TEC.

Numerical investigation of a battery thermal management system integrated with vapor chamber and thermoelectric refrigeration

An efficient battery thermal management system is crucial for ensuring the working temperature environment of batteries and extending their lifespan. In this paper, a novel battery thermal management system combining vapor chambers and thermoelectric coolers is proposed to improve the battery's thermal behavior. Also, a complete fluid-thermal-electric multiphysics numerical model for the proposed system is built to predict its thermal performance under different cooling parameters. Results show that the use of thermoelectric coolers and vapor chambers can greatly lower the maximum temperature and temperature difference of batteries. Although the maximum temperature decreases with the increase of air convection heat transfer coefficient and coolant flow rate, the temperature difference increases at the same time. Under the given optimal air and water cooling parameters, it is noticed that as the input current of thermoelectric coolers increases, the maximum temperature and temperature difference show a pattern of decreasing first and then increasing. The optimal air convective heat transfer coefficient, coolant flow rate, and input current of 50 W/(m2·K), 0.04 m/s, and 1.5 A, respectively, are suggested, which corresponds to the maximum temperature of 39.83°C and temperature difference of 5.97°C. The present research introduces a fresh perspective on efficient battery thermal management, offering detailed insights into the utilization of thermoelectric cooling for this purpose.

Characterization of the Thermoelectric Coolers and Fatty Acid as a Phase Change Material of the Portable Box Cooler

The utilization of portable box coolers (PBC) for traditional fishermen is quite popular in Indonesia. However, pure water's cooling medium is still limited to ice. With the development of PCM technology, the utilization of fatty acids began to be used. Likewise, the use of thermoelectric coolers (TEC) directly on PBCs has also been widely developed. In this study, a combination of utilization of PCM based on fatty acids, namely lauric acid, myristic acid, and stearic acid has been carried out with the addition of a TEC to PBC. The concentration of each use of fatty acids in pure water was 5 mg/L, and the use of pure water was also tested as a comparison. The PBC design was developed for this research and given a load of 5 watts lamps in each test. The study was carried out in two stages, firstly, the use of PCM without the use of TEC, and the second study was the combination of the use of PCM which was added with the use of a TEC. The results showed that using a fatty acid solution was able to maintain the air temperature in the PBC longer than using only pure water. The use of stearic acid solution produces the best performance which can be seen from the time it takes to maintain the air temperature in the PBC is the longest to reach the initial air temperature, which is 1,160 minutes, followed using myristic acid solution for 1,120 minutes, while the use of the lauric acid solution is only able to maintain air temperature in PBC for 1080 minutes. This can be caused by the melting point of stearic acid being higher than the use of myristic acid and lauric acid. However, these results show that they are better than pure water, which can only reach 900 minutes to maintain air temperature in PBC. Adding a TEC to PCM from fatty acids could extend the time to maintain the air temperature in the PBC by about 40 minutes. These results indicate that the use of these fatty acids as PCM media can work significantly in thermal energy storage.

Multi-stage thermoelectric coolers for cooling wearables

• Multi-stage TECs are shown to perform better than single-stage TECs for use against skin. • Multi-stage TECs can achieve lower temperature, while maintaining power requirement. • Results are validated using experiment, finite element analysis and analytical solutions. Over the last decade, there has been significant interest in the use of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) in cooling wearables. While there has been notable work on optimizing single-stage TECs for use against human skin, much less attention is given to multi-stage TECs. In this contribution, analytical computations are performed to show that multi-stage TECs can achieve lower cold side temperatures while maintaining the coefficient of performance as compared to single-stage TECs when used against human skin. The findings are confirmed with detailed FEA analysis and experiments. The results therefore imply that multi-stage TECs have the potential of providing more cooling sensation to the human skin, while maintaining the power required per unit cooling power provided. This paper provides a detailed parametric studies on how key design parameters of the TECs (number of stages, current ratio, fill factor, aspect ratio and leg area) affect the performance of the multi-stage TECs. A guideline on the optimal design parameters is provided to guide the design of multi-stage TECs for use in cooling wearables.

Micro-coolers fabricated as a component in an integrated circuit

The packing density and power capacity of integrated electronics is increasing resulting in higher thermal flux densities. Improved thermal management techniques are required and one approach is to include thermoelectric coolers as part of the integrated circuit. An analysis will be described showing that the supporting substrate will have a large influence on the cooling capacity of the thermoelectric cooler. In particular, for materials with a low ZT figure of merit (for example gallium arsenide (GaAs) based compounds) the substrate will have to be substantially thinned to obtain cooling, which may preclude the use of thermoelectric coolers, for example, as part of a GaAs based integrated circuit. Further, using experimental techniques to measure only the small positive cooling temperature difference (ΔT) between the anode (Th) and the cathode (Tc) contacts can be misinterpreted as cooling when in fact it is heating.

Generalized Approach To Cooling Charge-Coupled Devices Using Thermoelectric Coolers

This paper is concerned with the use of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) to cool charge-coupled devices(CCDs). Heat inputs to the CCD from thewarmer environment are identified, and generalized graphs are used to approximate the major heat inputs. A method of choosing and estimating the power consumption of the TEC is discussed. This method includes the use of TEC performance information supplied by the manufacturer and equations derived from this information. Parameters of the equations are tabulated to enable the reader to use the TEC performance equations for choosing and estimating the power needed for specific TEC applications.