A novel sandwich-structural cooling and heating system with high power, high COP and small size based on thermoelectric cooler

Abstract

In practical settings, thermoelectric coolers (TEC) typically exhibit a cooling capacity (Q_c) below 200 W and a coefficient of cooling performance (COP_c) less than 1, limiting their application in high-demand scenarios. Despite their compactness, TEC require extensive heat dissipation structures in actual deployment. This study introduces an advanced thermoelectric sandwich-structural cooling and heating system (TESSCH), integrating TEC, flat water channels, and folded fins. The TESSCH system incorporates 72 TECs within a maximum external dimension of 172 mm*170 mm*30 mm, significantly reducing the footprint compared to traditional TEC system. Experimental findings reveal that the TESSCH system’s coefficient of heating performance (COP_h) is 196.7 % of that provided by a conventional PTC heater, achieving COP_h and heating capacity (Q_h) values of 2.18 and 1088.82 W, respectively. Under an input power of 500 W, the TESSCH system’s COP_c and cooling capacity (Q_c) reach 1.18 and 588.82 W, surpassing typical TEC figures. Compared with traditional air–water cooling systems, TESSCH offers substantially enhanced performance in a more compact form. Using RMS method and BBD experimental design, the regression models of the response variables about the design variables were obtain. The optimal combination of design parameters is obtained by the optimization method.