TY - JOUR
T1 - A new configuration design of thermoelectric cooler driven by thermoelectric generator
AU - Lin, Lin
AU - Zhang, Yu Feng
AU - Liu, Hai Bo
AU - Meng, Jing Hui
AU - Chen, Wei Hsin
AU - Wang, Xiao Dong
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was partially supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (No. 51525602 ), Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51821004 ), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. FRF-BD-16-009A and 2017ZZD006 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - Self-driven thermoelectric cooler-thermoelectric generator (TEC-TEG) systems have recently attracted a great deal of attention. The single-stage and two-stage TEC-TEG systems have been developed and extensively studied. However, a serial electric current configuration between the TEC and TEG leads to a low cooling capacity or/and a small temperature drop across the TEC, and hence seriously restricts applications of TEG-TEC systems. In this work, a new design of combined TEC-TEG systems is proposed, where two single-stage TEGs are employed to separately power the hot stage and cold stage of the TEC. The advantage of the new design lies in the separate electric current configuration. A three-dimensional thermoelectric model is developed to compare the performance of the new and original designs for various thermocouple number ratios and operating conditions. The comparison demonstrates that the new design not only enhances the cooling capacity of the system but also increases the maximum temperature drop across the TEC. For a TEG-TEC system with only 30 couples, the cooling capacity of the new design is enhanced by 75.0% and the maximum temperature drop is elevated by 76.8%, as compared with the original design. The present predictions provide a useful guidance for the design of combined TEG-TEC systems.
AB - Self-driven thermoelectric cooler-thermoelectric generator (TEC-TEG) systems have recently attracted a great deal of attention. The single-stage and two-stage TEC-TEG systems have been developed and extensively studied. However, a serial electric current configuration between the TEC and TEG leads to a low cooling capacity or/and a small temperature drop across the TEC, and hence seriously restricts applications of TEG-TEC systems. In this work, a new design of combined TEC-TEG systems is proposed, where two single-stage TEGs are employed to separately power the hot stage and cold stage of the TEC. The advantage of the new design lies in the separate electric current configuration. A three-dimensional thermoelectric model is developed to compare the performance of the new and original designs for various thermocouple number ratios and operating conditions. The comparison demonstrates that the new design not only enhances the cooling capacity of the system but also increases the maximum temperature drop across the TEC. For a TEG-TEC system with only 30 couples, the cooling capacity of the new design is enhanced by 75.0% and the maximum temperature drop is elevated by 76.8%, as compared with the original design. The present predictions provide a useful guidance for the design of combined TEG-TEC systems.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114087
DO - 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114087
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068607639
VL - 160
JO - Journal of Heat Recovery Systems
JF - Journal of Heat Recovery Systems
SN - 1359-4311
M1 - 114087
ER -