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Heat transfer rate and efficiency of thermoelectric heat pumps equipped with fins at both sides.

Number: pap. B1-100

Author(s) : LU J. H., LIN C. H.

Summary

Thermal electric module (TEM) can be used for power generation as well as heat removing. Heat is transferred from cold environment to a warm room as TEM works as a heat pump. The configuration of the heat pump system is that fin arrays are mounted on both the hot side and the cold side of TEM such that heat may transfer from low temperature environment to the cold side of TEM, and then from the cold side of TEM to the hot side of TEM, and finally from the hot side of TEM to the room to be heated. The external thermal resistance associated with fin arrays may affect the performance of heat pump. A model was developed in this paper to analyze the effect of external thermal resistance on the cold side heat transfer rate and the system performance. It was found that in some circumstances, the TEM would not work well as a heat pump. Electric current applied to the system is the major control parameter to determine the system performance. As the applied electric current increases, the cold side temperature would decrease at first until a minimum value has been reached, and then rises up. The whole working range of applied current can be divided into three distinct regions. The lowest is the conduction region in which the TEM is working as an insulator. No heat is removed from low temperature environment to high temperature room, and COP is negative. Heat pump works in the middle region and COP is greater than one. The highest is the dissipation region in which the heat generated by the Ohm effect overwhelms and the TEM becomes nothing but a heater with the value of COP less than one. The heat transfer capacity of TEM is significantly affected by the magnitude of external thermal resistance. For the case analyzed in this paper, the heat transfer capacity is reduced to only one ninth of its original value if thermal resistance of 1.5 K/W is connected with TEM. It is also found that the TEM with high capacity is affected more than that of low capacity such that high capacity TEM would deliver less heat than low capacity TEM if thermal resistance is considered. Besides, thermal resistance on the hot side of TEM is more important to determine the system performance than the cold side thermal resistance.

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Pages: 11 p.

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Details

  • Original title: Heat transfer rate and efficiency of thermoelectric heat pumps equipped with fins at both sides.
  • Record ID : 30004936
  • Languages: English
  • Source: ACRA2010. Asian conference on refrigeration and air conditioning: Tokyo, Japan, June 7-9, 2010.
  • Publication date: 2010/06/07

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