Performance Study of Portable Semiconductor Refrigeration Device Based on CFD Simulation

Abstract

Since the summer of 2022, the whole world has suffered the abnormal weather phenomena of high ambient temperature. Equipment for refrigeration, particularly portable refrigeration equipment, is crucial for personal protection in high−temperature environments, but cooling performance and miniaturization have been challenging issues. A portable air conditioner based on a semiconductor refrigeration device for human body cooling was developed. The total weight of the device is 450 g. The overall power consumption of the device is 82 W and the energy consumption ratio of semiconductor cooling plate is 0.85. The semiconductor refrigeration technology is based on the Peltier effect, supplemented by a DC fan to send the cooling air out to a specified position or zone. The structural parts are manufactured by 3D printing technology to make the overall size of the device more compact. The air volume and cooling performance of the device were analyzed by computational fluid dynamics simulation and the temperature distribution was measured by an infrared thermal imager and other instruments, and the measured results agreed with the CFD simulation results. The test ambient temperature was 20 °C. The measurement results showed that the wind speed of the hot air outlet was 6.92 m/s and that of the cold air outlet was 8.24 m/s. The cold air surface temperature reached a stable state of 13.9 °C in about 4 min, while the hot air surface temperature reached a stable state of 47.2 °C.

Synthesis and Characterization of a Semiconductor Diodic Bilayer PbS/CdS Made by the Chemical Bath Deposition Technique

“…For instance, zinc oxide (ZnO)-based LEDs have been developed through research, rare-earth free tunable LEDs, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) like gallium-doped ZnO thin films (TFs), ethoxylated polyethylenimine (PEIE) and ZnO at PEIE-ZnO as functional layers for OLEDs, ZnO:Gd 3+ /Yb 3+ as an emissive layer in LEDs, perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs), PeLEDs utilizing ZnO as an electron-transporting layer (ETLs)­m, and AlGaN like deep ultraviolet LEDs, among others. Semiconductors are also used as potentiometers in the automotive sector, as a portable semiconductor refrigeration device, as well as in thin-film transistors (TFTs), which are of high interest for further investigation and application due to their ease of fabrication . Flexible oxide TFTs are used as memristive devices, p-type tellurium (Te) TFTs, indium oxide (In 2 O 3 )-based TFTs, and TFTs based in metal oxide semiconductors in emerging applications such as flexible–stretchable devices; biosensors; zinc tin oxide, indium gallium zinc oxide, indium tin zin oxide, nitrogen-doped indium tin oxide, and indium tin oxide (ITO) TFTs as promising biosensing devices; and so on as next-generation TFTs, among others. − Solar energy is a freely available renewable energy source.…”

Thermo-Electro-Fluidic Simulation Study of Impact of Blower Motor Heat on Performance of Peltier Cooler for Protective Clothing

“…A half-body cooling system that supplies cold air only to the upper body has also been developed. The weight of the system, excluding the blower fans and batteries, is 450 g, showing a dramatic reduction in weight [8]. This paper introduces the design and performance of an even more lightweight Peltier cooler than the two devices mentioned above.…”

“…This is because the prediction of both steady-state response and initial dynamic behavior is vital for the performance evaluation of a Peltier cooler, which takes a relatively long time of over 200 s to reach the steady state [18,19]. In the airflow analysis using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), turbulence models have been popularly used instead of laminar models because the associated Reynolds number is very high due to fast impeller speed and narrow cooling fin channels [8,9,13]. Comparing three widely used turbulent models, i.e., the standard k − model, the realizable k − model, and the shear stress transport (SST) k − ω model, the SST k − ω model showed the highest accuracy in a three-dimensional steady-state CFD analysis for a home refrigerator with an integrated Peltier cooling unit [19].…”

“…Three-dimensional steady-state CFD analysis of thermoelectric air cooling chamber with a liquid heat exchanger on the high-temperature side was carried out based on the realizable k − turbulent model [24]. Design verification of a portable Peltier air cooler integrated with the work jacket was performed with CFD simulations [8]. Transient CFD and thermoelectric analyses were conducted in a one-way coupling fashion [25].…”