Investigation of flow and heat transfer characteristics in a coupled cooling system of thermoelectric refrigeration and ion wind

Abstract

This paper focuses on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a cooling system that combines thermoelectric cooling technology with ion wind technology. Through experimental exploration and data analysis, the factors affecting the performance of the sawtooth-plate ion wind were first investigated using the orthogonal experimental method. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was employed to visualize the internal flow field and investigate the impact of voltage and plate spacing on the performance of the ion wind generator with a mesh and a parallel plate receiving electrode. Lastly, the heat transfer characteristics of the standalone thermoelectric cooling system and the coupled system were compared. The study found that voltage has the greatest impact on the performance of the ion wind, followed by the spacing of the parallel plate electrodes. Compared to the standalone thermoelectric cooling system, the temperature drop of the heat source in the coupled system increased by 6.7%, and the COP increased by 7.9%, proving that the coupled system has significantly improved heat transfer performance.