Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2020) 135: 80
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-019-00020-3

Regular Article

Thermodynamic modeling and analysis of an air-cooled small space thermoelectric cooler

¹ Institute of Thermal Science and Power Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, People’s Republic of China
² School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, People’s Republic of China
³ College of Power Engineering, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan, 430033, People’s Republic of China

^* e-mail: lgchenna@yahoo.com
^** e-mail: lingenchen@hotmail.com

Received: 16 April 2019
Accepted: 17 September 2019
Published online: 17 January 2020

Abstract

Small space thermoelectric cooler is suitable for submarine air conditioning, biological temperature control, laboratory freezer and other fields. A new method based on intrinsic parameter description is proposed for thermoelectric refrigeration system independent of the module and heat sink geometric parameters, namely the refrigeration rate density and equivalent area resistance method. The studies show that the refrigeration rate will reduce if the heatsink cannot match the packing factor of the modules. Both high and low current can meet the requirement of small temperature difference. A high current leads to a large cooling capacity; while a low current leads to a high refrigeration efficiency. If large temperature difference is required, high current must be used. The maximum refrigeration temperature difference is about 12 °C, 22 °C and 27 °C when the current is 0.4 A, 0.8 A and 1.2 A, respectively. It is suitable to select a fin height of about 50 mm from the viewpoint of economic efficiency and portability of the cooler.