Numerical Study and Optimization of a Combined Thermoelectric Assisted Indirect Evaporative Cooling System

This paper numerically investigates the performance of a novel combined cross-regenerative cross flow (C-RC) thermoelectric assisted indirect evaporative cooling (TIEC) system. This C-RC TIEC system combines the indirect evaporative cooling and thermoelectric cooling technologies. A heat and mass transfer model is developed to perform the performance analysis and optimization of this novel system. Performance comparison between the novel C-RC TIEC system and a regenerative cross flow TIEC system is conducted under various operating conditions. It is found that the novel system provides better performance with higher coefficient of performance (COP) and higher dew point effectiveness than the regenerative cross flow TIEC system, especially under smaller working current and smaller number of thermoelectric cooling modules. The performance optimization of the novel system is also made by investigating the influences of primary air parameters, three different mass flow rate ratios, as well as the length ratio of the left wet channel to the whole wet channel. The results show that there exist optimal mass flow rate ratios and wet channel length ratio resulting in the maximumCOP.