Thermodynamic Analysis and Experimental Research of Water-Cooled Small Space Thermoelectric Air-Conditioner

This paper aims to find a more general analysis method for the refrigeration performance,and to design a high efficiency modular cooling structure of water-cooled plate.A new analysis method,namely current and refrigeration rate density analysis,is proposed.The general refrigeration performance calculation equations are obtained.A finite-time thermodynamic model of the thermoelectric device is established considering Thomson effect.The basic structure of water-cooled thermoelectric air-conditioner is designed and the specific calculation method is given.The influences of input current density,filling factor and heat transfer conditions on refrigeration performance of the thermoelectric air-conditioner are analyzed,which is compared with refrigeration performance of air-cooled thermoelectric air-conditioner.The results show that the maximum refrigeration rate density of the water-cooled thermoelectric air-conditioner is 8.65 k W/m^(2),and the maximum coefficient of performance(COP)is 2.27 in the case of the cooling temperature differenceΔT=5 K.Compared withΔT=5 K,the maximum refrigeration rate density and the maximum COP ofΔT=15 K decreases by 27.98%and 76.65%,respectively.At the filling factorθ=0.43,the refrigeration rate density and COP are 2.57 k W/m~2 and 1.24,respectively.The experimental device of thermoelectric air-conditioner is established to verify the model.The experimental results show that the maximum value of input current and COP is 4 A and 0.95 with the efficient water-cooling method,respectively.The experimental data coincides with the theoretical calculation,which shows the validity of the analysis method and cooling method.