A Study on Enhancement of Thermoelectric Cooling System Performance by Piezoelectric Actuator

The thermoelectric cooling system consisted of the thermoelectric module, a heat sink and a cooling fan, respectively. Also, the piezoelectric actuator was applied to improve the performance of thermoelectric cooling system and investigate the heat transfer phenomenon. The temperature distribution of test section was measured to investigate cooling characteristics of thermoelectric cooling system. The flow phenomenon of test section was visualized using visualization device. When the piezoelectric actuator was applied to the heat transfer process of thermoelectric cooling system, acoustic streaming was occurred in test section. The acoustic streaming was occurred forced convection flow, and was regularly formed the temperature distribution in test section. The results clearly show that the acoustic streaming is one of the prime effects to enhance the convection heat transfer and can enhance the performance of thermoelectric cooling system.