DEVELOPMENTS OF THERMOELECTRIC REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS BY USING PELTIER EFFECT

Abstract

Refrigeration has made the milestone in human life. Since from very long time the human being has developed so many ways of
refrigeration for preserving food, cooling water, etc. but yet the techniques are developing. The science of refrigeration has developed so many ways to improve our lifestyle. The research focused on simulation of a thermoelectric refrigerator maintained at 4oC. The performance of the refrigerator was simulated using Matlab under varying operating conditions. The system consisted of the refrigeration chamber, thermoelectric modules, heat source and heat sink. Results show that the coefficient of performance (C.O.P) which is a criterion of performance of such device is a function of the temperature between the source and sink. For maximum efficiency the temperature difference is to be kept to the barest minimum. Thermoelectric cooling uses the Peltier effect to create a heat flux between the junctions of two different types of materials. A Peltier cooler, heater, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other, with consumption of electrical energy, depending on the direction of the current. Such an instrument is also called a Peltier
device, Peltier heat pump, solid state refrigerator, or thermoelectric cooler (TEC). It can be used either for heating or for cooling, although in practice the main application is cooling. It can also be used as a temperature controller that either heats
or cools.