Performance Optimization of Thermoelectric Coolers using the Dimensional Parameters in Restricted Space by Stochastic Algorithms

Abstract

A thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is a solid-state eco-friendly cooling device that operates newlinevirtually silently. The performances of thermoelectric coolers have so far been inferior to newlinethat of competing vapour compression refrigeration technique. In the present thesis, work newlineon the performance enhancement of thermoelectric cooler is presented. The dimensional newlinegeometric and operating parameters of the TEC system have been efficaciously newlineincorporated into the performance optimization and analysis. This study takes into account newlinea number of minor effects, including thermal contact resistance, electrical contact newlineresistance, and heat sink resistance. Not all of these factors were considered simultaneously newlineby previous studies, which distinguishes this work. The length of the thermoelectric newlineelements, their cross-sectional area, and the electric current were selected as design newlinevariables for this study. There had been no research in which a combination of these design newlinevariables was used simultaneously. The optimum design parameters have been used to newlineimprove the cooling capacity (Qc), coefficient of performance (COP) and exergetic newlineefficiency of the thermoelectric cooler. This study used precise temperatures at interfaces, newlinewhich resulted in a more accurate analysis using a more advanced model than previous newlineones. A thermal resistance model by employing the electrical analogy to the heat flow has newlinebeen developed. It effectively demonstrates its incorporation in an insightful and newlineillustrative manner, from model generation to results acquisition. newline