Performance Prediction and Irreversibility Analysis of a Thermoelectric Refrigerator with Finned Heat Exchanger

• Authors: F. Meng , L. Chen , F. Sun
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

A developed model of commercial thermoelectric refrigerators with finned heat exchanger is established by introducing finite time thermodynamics. A significant novelty is that physical properties, dimension parameters, temperature parameters and flow parameters are all taken into account in the model. Numerical studies and comparative investigation on the performance of a typical commercial water-cooling thermoelectric refrigerator which consists of 127 thermoelectric elements, are performed for cooling load and coefficient of performance. The results show that the maximum cooling load is 2.33 W and the maximum coefficient of performance is 0.54 when the cooling temperature difference is 10 K. Comparing the simulation results of several models, it is found that the heat convection of the heat exchanger and the heat leakage through the air gap are the main factors, which cause irreversibility and decrease the performance. Moreover, the performance can be improved by optimizing the length and cross-section area of thermoelectric elements. The model and calculation method may be applied to not only the analysis and performance prediction of practical thermoelectric refrigerators, but also the design and optimization of heat exchangers.

Keywords

EN

05.70.-a; 05.60.Cd; 05.70.Ln

Discipline

• 05.60.Cd: Classical transport
• 05.70.Ln: Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics(see also 82.40.Bj Oscillations, chaos, and bifurcations in physical chemistry and chemical physics)
• 05.70.-a: Thermodynamics(see also section 64 Equations of state, phase equilibria, and phase transitions, and section 65 Thermal properties of condensed matter; for chemical thermodynamics, see 82.60.-s; for thermodynamics of plasmas, see 52.25.Kn; for thermodynamic properties of quantum fluids, see 67.25.bd, and 67.30.ef; for thermodynamics of nanoparticles, see 82.60.Qr, and 65.80.-g; for thermodynamic processes in astrophysics, see 95.30.Tg; for thermodynamics in volcanology, see 91.40.Pc)

• Publisher: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 120
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 397-406

Dates

published

2011-09

received

2010-12-18

(unknown)

2011-04-01

Contributors

author

F. Meng

• College of Naval Architecture and Power, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, P.R. China

author

L. Chen

• College of Naval Architecture and Power, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, P.R. China

author

F. Sun

• College of Naval Architecture and Power, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, P.R. China

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Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.120.397