A Study on Performance of Thermoelectric Air-Cooling System in Parallel Flow

Experimental and theoretical studies on cooling performance of two-channel thermoelectric air-cooling system in parallel flow are conducted. The effects of operating temperature to physical properties of thermoelectric module (TEM) are experimentally examined and used in the analysis of an air-cooling system considering thermal network and energy balance. The theoretical predicted temperature variation and cooling capacity are in good agreement with measured data, thereby validating analytic model. The heat absorbed rate increases with increasing the voltage input and decreasing thermal resistance of the system. The power consumption of TEM is linearly proportional to mean temperature differences due to variations of the physical properties on operation temperature of TEM. Furthermore thermal resistance of hot side has greater effects on cooling performance than that of cold side.