New optimum design for cooling system in thermoelectric thermal devices

Abstract The problem of efficient cooling in the compact medium is a very critical problem in the design of thermoelectric thermal devices. In this paper, the thermal behavior of special heat sinks with exponential fin is considered for use in thermoelectric systems. To evaluation of cooling performance of the proposed cooling system, the energy balance of considered heat sinks with variable thermal conductivity including mass transfer is evaluated. The effective analytical method so-called differential transformation method is selected for the solution of the heat balance nonlinear differential equation. Comparisons of the analytical and numerical solution show the excellent accuracy of the selected analytical solution. Based on analytical results, the effects of operational and geometrical parameters on the performance of the heat sink in TEC are evaluated. To the selection of best optimum design with lowest volume, highest heat transfer and thermal efficiency, the Ant Colony Optimization procedure is selected for multi-objective optimization purposes.