A study on performance improvement of thermoelectric cooling system by a vibrating piezoelectric actuator

This study investigated on improving of cooling performance of the thermoelectric cooling system by a vibrating from the piezoelectric actuator. Experiment was carried out to investigate cooling performance of the thermoelectric cooling system for the cases; one without the piezoelectric actuator and the other with the piezoelectric actuator. Temperature measurement experiment and flow visualization experiment were performed to compare cooling performance for the cases, respectively. Cooling performance of the thermoelectric cooling system was improved by the piezoelectric actuator when the results of temperature measurement and flow visualization were compared, because forced convection was generated by vibrating (acoustic streaming) from the piezoelectric actuator and the cold air in cooling region was actively circulated by impulsive convection.