Enhancement Of Transient Performance For Thermoelectric Cooler Via Multi-Parameter Optimization

Due to its small size,rapid response to work,no moving parts and no environmental pollution,thermoelectric cooler has attracted much attention since its publication and has been widely used.In recent years,as electronic devices are highly integrated,miniaturized,and thus have high heat flux density,the conventional TEC steady-state refrigeration technology has limited application.However,the high efficiency of TEC transient supercooling effect is particularly suitable for the environment.Based on the established three-dimensional thermoelectric multiphysics coupled transient model,three optimization design methods that can effectively enhance the transient supercooling performance of TEC are proposed by numerical simulation.A method of enhancing two-stage TEC by using separate pulse current combination is proposed.The parameters of pulse current amplitude,pulse width,pulse input method and pulse start-up time oftwo-stage TEC are optimized.The numerical simulation shows that when pulse current is applied to both cold section and hot section of a two-stage TEC,transient supercooling temperature of the cold end is lowest.Once the pulse current amplitude Pc and pulse width ?c of the cold section are determined,the cold section temperature can be most effectively reduced by applying a pulsed current with the same amplitude Ph and smaller pulse width ?h(<?c).The cold end temperature of thermoelectric cooler can be further reduced when the pulse current of hot section is applied earlier than that of the cold section.A new method of semiconductor cross section design combined with two-stage thermoelectric cooler for transient supercooling is proposed.The effects of different cross-sectional area ratios ?c and ?h on the transient supercooling performance were discussed.When the cold section of two-stage TEC is designed with a variable cross-section,the transient supercooling temperature is lower when the cross-sectional area ratio of the cold section is ?c>1.When the cross-sectional area ratio of two-stage TEC cold section is fixed,the cross-sectional area ratio of hot section ?h<1 or ?h>1 is beneficial to the decrease of cold end temperature.However,when the cross-sectional area ratio of hot section ?h<1,it will increase the hot end temperature.For the first time,the concept of an effective refrigeration line was proposed.Based on this,the effective holding time ?h<1,of the transient refrigeration maintenance of TEC was raised by applying pulsed current to TEC.When a single pulse current is applied,the pulse amplitude is constant,and the teff-hold increases with the pulse width;when the pulse width is constant,the teff-hold increases first and then decreases with the increase of amplitude.Applying double pulses in one work periodcan effectively improve the efficiency of holding time by increasing the latter pulse starting current value I'ini,When the starting current of I'ini is fixed,by changing the amplitude and the width of pulse can further enhance the effective holding time of transient state.