Numerical simulation on a compact thermoelectric cooler for the optimized design

Gong, Tingrui; Gao, Lei; Wu, Yongjia; Zhang, Long; Yin, Shengyan; Li, Juntao; Ming, Tingzhen

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.10.047

Cited by 66 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Each of the thermoelectric nodes included into the thermoelectric pair present Joule and Thomson effects, while the end nodes (1 and 10) also need to include the heat flux due to Peltier and contact effects. Equation ( 23) is used to calculate the heat flux in the interior nodes whereas Equations (24)(25) are used for the end ones. The ceramic plates of the thermoelectric modules, used as electric insulation, are grouped in one node for the hot side, and one node for the cold side, assuming that the entire plate is at the same temperature.…”

Section: Thermoelectric Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ceramic plates of the thermoelectric modules, used as electric insulation, are grouped in one node for the hot side, and one node for the cold side, assuming that the entire plate is at the same temperature. The thermal resistances and heat capacities of these nodes are given by Equations (24)(25), and the properties of the material are input parameters of the computational model.…”

Section: Thermoelectric Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these systems need more electric power than vapour compression ones [20,21]. This issue has restricted the scope of thermoelectric cooling to small capacity applications such as refrigeration of electronic devices [22], [23], [24]or small domestic refrigerators, where the huge influence of the thermal resistances of the heat exchangers of the system is proven [25]. On this matter, relevant improvements have been achieved by the development of phase change heat exchangers [26][27][28], but the COPs are still much lower than the ones obtained with vapour compression cycles [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Improvements in the cooling capacity and the COP of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration plant operating with a thermoelectric subcooling system

Astrain

Merino

Aranguren

et al. 2019

Applied Thermal Engineering

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Restrictive environmental regulations are driving the use of CO2 as working fluid in commercial vapour compression plants due to its ultra-low global warming potential (GWP100 = 1) and its natural condition. However, at high ambient temperatures transcritical operating conditions are commonly achieved causing low energy efficiencies in refrigeration facilities. To solve this issue, several improvements have been implemented, especially in large centralized plants where ejectors, parallel compressors or subcooler systems, among others, are frequently used. Despite their good results, these measures are not suitable for small-capacity systems due mainly to the cost and the complexity of the system. Accordingly, this work presents a new subcooling system equipped with thermoelectric modules (TESC), which thanks to its simplicity, low cost and easy control, results very suitable for medium and small capacity plants. The developed methodology finds the gas-cooler pressure and the electric voltage supplied to the TESC system that maximizes the overall COP of the plant taking into account the ambient temperature, the number of thermoelectric modules used and the thermal resistance of the heat exchangers included in the TESC. The obtained results reveal that, with 20 thermoelectric modules, an improvement of 20% in terms of COP and of 25.6% regarding the cooling capacity can be obtained compared to the base cycle of CO2 of a small cooling plant refrigerated by air. Compared to a cycle that uses an internal heat exchanger IHX, the improvements reach 12.2% and 19.5% respectively.

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Section: Thermoelectric Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Thermoelectric Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Improvements in the cooling capacity and the COP of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration plant operating with a thermoelectric subcooling system

Astrain

Merino

Aranguren

et al. 2019

Applied Thermal Engineering

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“…Through the analysis and optimization of this model, it was found that a TEG with only two pairs of thermocouples can improve its conversion efficiency by 1.2%. Gong et al [10] optimized the TEC's input current, leg geometry, and contact layer by taking into Energies 2020, 13, 4691 2 of 10 account the material's temperature characteristics, the Thomson effect, and contact layer resistance to achieve maximum cooling performance and high operational reliability. Cuce et al [11] investigated the impacts of nanofluid use in TECs on cooling power and the main performance parameters through a comprehensive experimental methodology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of an Integrated Thermoelectric Generation–Cooling System for Thermoelectric Cooler Waste Heat Recovery

Zhu

Kong

et al. 2020

Energies

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This paper focuses on the problem of thermoelectric cooler waste heat recovery and utilization, and proposes taking the waste heat together with the original heat source as the input heat source of the integrated thermoelectric generation–cooling system. By establishing an analytic model of this integrated thermoelectric generation–cooling system, the steady-state and transient thermal effects of this system are analyzed. The steady-state analysis results show that the thermoelectric generator’s actual heat source is about 20% larger than the intrinsic heat source. The transient analysis results prove that the current of thermoelectric power generation and the cold end temperature of the system show a nonlinear change rate with time. The cold end temperature of the system has a maximum value. Under different intrinsic heat sources, this maximum value can be reached between 1 s and 2.5 s.

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“…In the 21st century, international research on the performance improvement of thermoelectric refrigeration systems has mainly focused on thermoelectric materials, structural optimisation, and heat dissipation at the hot end of the system . When the performance of the thermoelectric materials is sufficient, the efficiency of a thermoelectric refrigeration system can be raised from as low as 10% to close to the Carnot cycle efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global moment‐independent sensitivity analysis of single‐stage thermoelectric refrigeration system

Zhang

Liu

et al. 2019

Int J Energy Res

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A mathematical model of single-stage thermoelectric refrigeration system (SSTRS) was built considering the influence of external heat transfer. Based on the relationship between the input system design variables and the output cooling capacity, the coefficient of performance and the influence of the fluctuation of the design variables on the stability of the thermoelectric refrigeration system output performance parameters were studied using a moment-independent sensitivity analysis. The Latin hypercube sampling method was used to simulate the fluctuation of the design variables, and their moment-independent sensitivity indices were calculated by the Monte Carlo method. The design variables were then sorted according to their importance to the output parameters, and the key design variables affecting the coefficient of performance and the cooling capacity were obtained. These results can provide useful guidance for the design and optimisation of SSTRS.

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Numerical simulation on a compact thermoelectric cooler for the optimized design

Cited by 66 publications

References 32 publications

Improvements in the cooling capacity and the COP of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration plant operating with a thermoelectric subcooling system

Improvements in the cooling capacity and the COP of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration plant operating with a thermoelectric subcooling system

Modeling of an Integrated Thermoelectric Generation–Cooling System for Thermoelectric Cooler Waste Heat Recovery

Global moment‐independent sensitivity analysis of single‐stage thermoelectric refrigeration system

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