Experimental Contribution to the Design of a Microprocessor Cooling System by Thermoelectric Module
01 Jan 2020-pp 19-25
TL;DR: In this paper, experiments are performed to investigate the coupling of thermoelectric module and rectangular fin heat sink subjected to an impacting air jet for cooling desktop micro-processors.
Abstract: In this study, experiments are performed to investigate the coupling of thermoelectric module and rectangular fin heat sink subjected to an impacting air jet for cooling desktop microprocessors. A controlled thermoelectric test system was conceived and performed for this purpose. The control of the thermoelectric forced air combined cooling system was designed on the basis of electronic Arduino card. The proposed thermoelectric forced convection cooling combined system was compared with the conventional forced air cooling technique. Three electrical powers for the heat source (CPU) were adopted and compared in this experimental study: 60, 87 and 95 W. Performance of thermoelectric cooling module with three preset temperature was experimentally investigated below diverse working conditions. Effects of thermoelectric input current and air jet velocity on the case temperature (Tcase) were analysed. The thermoelectric cooler had a considerable effect on the cooling of the CPU. However, the consumption of the energy was also augmented. Experimental results indicated that the cooling effect improved with increasing of thermoelectric operating current. However, Temperature of the heat source increased with high power input of the CPU. For a power input of 95 W of the CPU, the Tcase was maintained under 50 °C with thermoelectric input power of 45 and 5.8 W for the fan, giving improvement around 15% comparing to conventional forced air cooling.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reviewed the recent advances of thermoelectric materials, modeling approaches, and applications, and summarized the achievements in past decade have been summarized and the modeling techniques have been described for both the thermoelement modeling and TEC modeling.
Abstract: This study reviews the recent advances of thermoelectric materials, modeling approaches, and applications. Thermoelectric cooling systems have advantages over conventional cooling devices, including compact in size, light in weight, high reliability, no mechanical moving parts, no working fluid, being powered by direct current, and easily switching between cooling and heating modes. In this study, historical development of thermoelectric cooling has been briefly introduced first. Next, the development of thermoelectric materials has been given and the achievements in past decade have been summarized. To improve thermoelectric cooling system's performance, the modeling techniques have been described for both the thermoelement modeling and thermoelectric cooler (TEC) modeling including standard simplified energy equilibrium model, one-dimensional and three-dimensional models, and numerical compact model. Finally, the thermoelectric cooling applications have been reviewed in aspects of domestic refrigeration, electronic cooling, scientific application, and automobile air conditioning and seat temperature control, with summaries for the commercially available thermoelectric modules and thermoelectric refrigerators. It is expected that this study will be beneficial to thermoelectric cooling system design, simulation, and analysis.
495 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive review of thermoelectric (TE) technology encompassing the materials, applications, modelling techniques and performance improvement is carried out, including output power conditioning techniques.
Abstract: Thermoelectric (TE) technology is regarded as alternative and environmentally friendly technology for harvesting and recovering heat which is directly converted into electrical energy using thermoelectric generators (TEG). Conversely, Peltier coolers and heaters are utilized to convert electrical energy into heat energy for cooling and heating purposes The main challenge lying behind the TE technology is the low efficiency of these devices mainly due to low figure of merit (ZT) of the materials used in making them as well as improper setting of the TE systems. The objective of this work is to carry out a comprehensive review of TE technology encompassing the materials, applications, modelling techniques and performance improvement. The paper has covered a wide range of topics related to TE technology subject area including the output power conditioning techniques. The review reveals some important critical aspects regarding TE device application and performance improvement. It is observed that the intensified research into TE technology has led to an outstanding increase in ZT, rendering the use TE devices in diversified application a reality. Not only does the TE material research and TE device geometrical adjustment contributed to TE device performance improvement, but also the use of advanced TE mathematical models which have facilitated appropriate segmentation TE modules using different materials and design of integrated TE devices. TE devices are observed to have booming applications in cooling, heating, electric power generation as well as hybrid applications. With the generation of electric energy using TEG, not only does the waste heat provide heat source but also other energy sources like solar, geothermal, biomass, infra-red radiation have gained increased utilization in TE based systems. However, the main challenge remains in striking the balance between the conflicting parameters; ZT and power factor, when designing and optimizing advanced TE materials. Hence more research is necessary to overcome this and other challenge so that the performance TE device can be improved further.
294 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the cooling capacity, junction temperature, coefficient of performance, and required heat sink thermal resistance at the TEC hot side were computed for thermoelectric cooler applications in the electronic cooling.
Abstract: This study addresses thermoelectric cooler (TEC) applications in the electronic cooling. The cold side temperature (Tc) and temperature difference between TEC cold and hot sides (ΔT=Th−Tc, Th=temperature of hot side of TEC) were used as the parameters. The cooling capacity, junction temperature, coefficient of performance (COP) of TEC and the required heat sink thermal resistance at the TEC hot side were computed. The results indicated that the cooling capacity could be increased as Tc increased and ΔT was reduced. The maximum cooling capacity and chip junction temperature obtained were 207 W and 88 °C, respectively. The required heat sink thermal resistance on TEC hot side was 0.054 °C/W. Larger cooling capacity and higher COP could be obtained when the TEC was operated in the enforced regimes (ΔT
243 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical model of thermal analogy network is developed to predict the thermal performance of the thermoelectric air-cooling module, and the results show that the prediction by the model agrees with the experimental data.
Abstract: This article investigates the thermoelectric air-cooling module for electronic devices. The effects of heat load of heater and input current to thermoelectric cooler are experimentally determined. A theoretical model of thermal analogy network is developed to predict the thermal performance of the thermoelectric air-cooling module. The result shows that the prediction by the model agrees with the experimental data. At a specific heat load, the thermoelectric air-cooling module reaches the best cooling performance at an optimum input current. In this study, the optimum input currents are from 6 A to 7 A at the heat loads from 20 W to 100 W. The result also demonstrates that the thermoelectric air-cooling module performs better performance at a lower heat load. The lowest total temperature difference-heat load ratio is experimentally estimated as −0.54 W K −1 at the low heat load of 20 W, while it is 0.664 W K −1 at the high heat load of 100 W. In some conditions, the thermoelectric air-cooling module performs worse than the air-cooling heat sink only. This article shows the effective operating range in which the cooling performance of the thermoelectric air-cooling module excels that of the air-cooling heat sink only.
100 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the liquid cooling in the mini-rectangular fin heat sink with and without thermoelectric for CPU is studied and the results of this study are expected to lead to guidelines that will allow the design of the cooling system with improved heat transfer performance of the electronic equipments.
Abstract: In the present study, the liquid cooling in the mini-rectangular fin heat sink with and without thermoelectric for CPU is studied. Six mini-rectangular fin heat sinks with two different material types and three different channel widths are fabricated from the copper or aluminum with the length, the width and the base thickness of 37, 37, 5 mm, respectively. The de-ionized water is used as coolant. Effects of channel width, coolant flow rate, material type of heat sink and run condition of PC on the CPU temperature are considered. The liquid cooling in mini-rectangular fin heat sink with thermoelectric is compared with the other cooling techniques. The thermoelectric has a significant effect on the CPU cooling of PC. However, energy consumption is also increased. The results of this study are expected to lead to guidelines that will allow the design of the cooling system with improved heat transfer performance of the electronic equipments.
97 citations