Cooling Computer Cabinet Using a Thermoelectric System, a Theoretical Study

Abstract

This paper is about cooling 95W socketed CPU of a desktop computer by a thermoelectric system. A Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis of this cooling system is provided in detail. The package used to perform the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is ICEPAK R.18. The used computer cabin is HP Compaq dc5850. It includes all components that generate heat such as hard disk drive, CPU that has an attached heat sink, CD drive, memory cards, DVD, and power supply unit. Different thermoelectric cooling (TEC) models have been used to support transfer of heat from the 95W socketed CPU. The current study aims to present a thermoelectric cooling (TEC) model of a computer cabinet and to extend it to a module, to validate the accuracy of this model using a numerical simulation and an analytical solution, to identify the impact of using the TEC on the processor, and to study the influential factors that make the TEC efficient.