High Efficiency Thermoelectric Coolers for Use in Firefighter Applications

Abstract

Firefighting personnel have long suffered physiological strain as a result of exposure to strenuous activity and harmful environments. Some of the strain is due to heat induced from lengthy exposure to high temperature environments and when performing strenuous work during long fire suppression activities. The results of these work conditions can lead to high internal body (core) temperature and cardiac events from overexertion, which has been identified as the leading cause to firefighter deaths. Thermoelectric refrigeration has been shown to have applications for portable cooling of firefighting personnel, having higher heat removal rates when compared to vapor compression refrigeration systems. This project focused on system design and analysis of a thermoelectric cooling (TEC) module using bulk thermoelectric materials. Specifically, a TEC system has been integrated into a closed-loop water circulation system. The closed loop system continuously cools the circulating water, which is used to absorb heat from a heat source represented by either simulated or actual volunteer fire fighting personnel. The cooling rate was characterized as a function of both water flow rate and TEC power input. To simulate operation of the TEC module in elevated temperature environments, tests were conducted in an environmental chamber under varying water flow rates and TEC input power. In addition, core temperatures were measured for each firefighter test subject. Corresponding heat removal rates and coefficients of performance are provided for each test. A heat removal rate of 160 W was achieved during firefighter cooling, while more than 250 W of heat was removed during environmental chamber tests. Maximum COP values of 0.6 and 1 were obtained from firefighter and environmental chamber experiments, respectively.

Performance of the novel design thermoelectric cooling system

“…These design principles were suitable for cooling large laser diode arrays for different cooling tasks. Using bulk TE materials, Kustas et al 7 studied the system design of a TEC module. A TEC system was presented in a closed‐loop water circulation system.…”

Two-dimensional numerical simulation of a thermoelectric cooler module

“…Besides general-purpose electronic equipment, thermoelectric coolers have proved to be useful in more specialised devices such as cryoprobes for cryosurgery [4], infrared cameras [5] and mid-infrared interband cascade lasers [6]. The increasing popularity and availability of TE devices encourages researchers to seek even more unexpected applications for thermoelectric coolers; this is exemplified by the concept of thermoelectrically cooled protective suits for firefighters presented in [7].…”