Simulation of the Q max mode of a thermoelectric cooler taking into account thermal resistances at the cool and hot sides

A Model of Heat Transfer in Counter-Current Heat Exchanger with a Thermoelectric Cooling Element

“…The direction of heat flow from fluid 1 to fluid 2 is considered positive. The intermediate layers A and B include the switching bus, ceramic insulators, radiators and other heat exchange elements and are described with the thermal resistance 1 R and 2 R between the surfaces of the thermocouple branches and heat transfer fluids [6]. The temperature of the cooling surface of the thermocouple is indicated as () a Tx , and the heated surface as ()…”

“…Here i H is the thickness of the streams of heat transfer fluids, i C is their specific heat, and the heat flux density through the surface of the TEC is written in the form [2,6]  …”

“…Thermoelectric coolers (TEC) are widely used in a variety of thermal converters [1][2][3]. The effective functioning of the TEC in the composition of the cooling _____________ Igor Bataronov, Alexander Kretinin, Vladimir Selivanov, Ekaterina Spytsina, Tatjana Nadeina, Voronezh State Technical University, 14 Moskovsky Avenue, Voronezh, 394026, Russia Igor Bataronov, Alexander Kretinin, Air Force Education and Research Center "The Zhukovsky and Gagarin Air Force Academy", 54A Starikh Bolshevikov Street, Voronezh, 394064, Russia device requires special techniques for improving its capacity: the enhancement of convective heat transfer from the surfaces TEC [4], design optimizations, such as the inclusion of additional conductive elements [5], optimization of thermal modes of TEC operation taking into account thermal resistances of the transition layers of the structure [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].Optimization of the TEC operation mode to the maximum cooling capacity has been widely considered in the literature [6,[9][10][11][12]. The influence of thermal characteristics of TEC and heat transfer media on the dynamic characteristics of the device is also studied [7].…”

“…However, typically it was considered the problem of heat transfer with the participation of TEC between the stationary media in the approximation of the law of Newton-Richman. For this case, analytical results are obtained and a complete numerical analysis is performed [6]. However, specific relationships may appear in moving heatcurrent media [8], therefore a separate model for heat transfer in a current heat exchanger with TEC is required.…”

“…Note that the current density of the ideal maximum cooling capacity [2,6] in the scale (5) used here is numerically equal to the parameter ZT and is 0.82. However, it follows from figure 2 that the maximum cooling of the hot coolant is achieved at a current density of 0.3, at which the relative cooling 1 1 ( ) l   at the outlet of the heat exchanger is 0.19.…”