Effect of heat transfer on the performance of thermoelectric generator-driven thermoelectric refrigerator system

A model of thermoelectric generator-driven thermoelectric refrigerator with external heat transfer is proposed. The performance of the combined thermoelectric refrigerator device obeying Newton's heat transfer law is analyzed using the combination of finite time thermodynamics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Two analytical formulae for cooling load vs. working electrical current, and the coefficient of performance (COP) vs. working electrical current, are derived. For a fixed total heat transfer surface area of four heat exchangers, the allocations of the heat transfer surface area among the four heat exchangers are optimized for maximizing the cooling load and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the combined thermoelectric refrigerator device. For a fixed total number of thermoelectric elements, the ratio of number of thermoelectric elements of the generator to the total number of thermoelectric elements is also optimized for maximizing both the cooling load and the COP of the combined thermoelectric refrigerator device. The influences of thermoelectric element allocation and heat transfer area allocation are analyzed by detailed numerical examples. Optimum working electrical current for maximum cooling load and COP at different total number of thermoelectric elements and different total heat transfer area are obtained, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.