A STUDY OF THERMOELECTRIC DESIGN CRITERIA FOR MAKINIZING COOLDOWN SPEED Td. Hendricks a. J. Buist Marlow industries, inc. 1021 So. dup eer Road Garland, Texas 75082 (2a) ag4-2s21 Summary ‘The transient cool-down performance was analyzed for a modified two-stage Marlow Industries Model NU 2020 thermoelectric (TE) heat punp. A forward time Gifferencing conputer technique was. imposed on a finite element thermal model of the thermoelectric heat pump to calculate the transient behavior of the device. Analysis of the cosputer simlations was made by con parison with steady-state optimization criteria. Some oteworthy conclusions were drawn providing guidelines For optiatzation of TE heat puros for cool-down speed. A two-stage thermoelectric design wos fabricated and its transient performance yas tested to valicate Computer simulations. Introduction ‘The major emphasis in the design of themp~ electric cool ing devices has been to accomplish a (given cooling task while minimizing electrical pover Snput, This minimization of input power inherently resules in thermoelectric designs wnich have slow {thermal response. Consequently, low power coolers for fast-cool applications require further considerations for inproving cool-down speed through design rather than simply increasing copter input. pover. Therma} Vodet_ Description The basic twowstage thermoelectric cooter in- vestigated nas a standard Marlow Industries Model IE 2080 heat pum “K ohocograph of the MI 2020.45 shown fn Figure 1. Figure 1 Two-Stage Thermoelectric Heat Pump, Model MI 2020 ‘The function of the cooler was to cool a .118" x .118" ys08" alumina substrate mounted onto the top ceramic. Aakitional thermal masses on the top ceramic, included ‘etellization, solder and a glass bead type thermistor ith platinunciriaium Teads. ‘The base of the heat punp was assuned to be ounces on an infinite heat sink. A vacuum us environment was assumed to surround the unit during operations Passive thermal radiation leading from the environment, in addition to thermal conduction Yoading from the substrate and thermistor leads, vas accounted for. No active thermal loading was present. A finite elenent thermal model of the two-stage thermpelectric cooler, the substrate, and the Surrounding thermal environrent vas generated by con- puter analysis. The various thermal resistances and Capacteances ware analyzed and similated in the com puter thereat model. The transient behavior of the Bctust thermal model was then approximates by a for- ward tine differencing technique simul taneous]y iinposed on each node of the finite elenent, thermal model. The well known thermoelectric equatfons and Standard neat transfer techniques were utilized to predict the transient heat fluxes and temperatures ‘within the actual thermal model. on Requtvenents ‘The goal of the investigation was to aesign a fast-cooly two-stage thermoelectric device capable of Feaching @ cold side temperature, Tg, of =20°C from a base temperature, Ty, of 65°C in mininun tine after electrical power application, To achieve this goal the investigation was focused on the three factors which have 2 major impact on the transient thermal Performance, and consequently the design, of any fast~ fool themoslectric. They snclude: (1) Minimization of the thermal mass of both the hheat pump components and the cooled thermal load So as to minimize the amount of stored energy which mist be extracted for 2 given cooTing effects (2) Hinfafzation of a11 thermal resistances connect~ fing the various components throughout the heat purp, and particularly that connecting the fooled Toad to the heat pump itself. this will provide the most efficient neat flow paths From fhe cooled Toad to the heat sinks (3) Maximjzation of the tine averaged heat pumping apactty, Gq» of the thermoelectric during the cool-down period, represented by Lt . & ateet o where t = time tg = tine to achieve Final cold Side temperature Q(t) * instantaneous heat pumped at cold side of TE heat pune.Minimization of thensal mass and thermal resis- free tances were addressed initially since these are fun damental to designing fest thermal response in any erumaeenee en Teuen) thermal systen, Wodifications were made subject to Capacity vo. TIME DURING practical linftattons, The transient performance of Rane leur ‘Cool-Doww PERIOD ‘the modified MI 2020 is displayed in Figure 2, Its fEransient performance exhibited significantly faster a co01-down Speed compared to the conventional designs. ‘Therefore, these modifications were incorporated into the Final design. TRANSIENT COOL Dow OF MIZaz0 WITH ANG WITHOUT TERNAL. HABE. MODIFICATIONS st 2020 iS 7 Neo sGBtercario%s gy Wins woorrrcarrons —& oa. octet * 2 E aes bo. 2.00 “9 Ficune 4 -0 OPrIMM STEADY STATE | 18 COUPLE RATIONVS. aT | 0 FOR A 1W0 STAGE THERWOELECTATE AEAT PUMP | Tine «aeons Coan ae COUPLE RATIO Heat Pusoing Capacity Hoximizat ion pales coer tee teaaere . Although design modifications for improving factors (1) and (2) are intuitively clears the pro- . cedure for maxinizing G, 18 considerably fore couplex. estates This is due to the fact that Q,(t) vartes consider- ably during cootadown. The typica} transient. be- havior of Gt) is Tiustrated tn Figure "Note that the shaded region represents che total eneray, Fy extracted by the cooler top ite top cota surface diring the tine trerenent te and ts equel to the integral portion of equation (1}. The criteria for maximizing heat pumping capacity for any given steady-state condition are well. known. The process can be reduced to optimally selecting 13 ‘and Rs where Tis the electrical current, A isthe TE pellet length/eree and-R is. the ratio of thermocouples prim 1canpeneseH from each stage to its adjacent, next higher stage, ‘ ae Both of these peraneters depend only on the boundary Penperatures of the TE heat pump. They can be selec~ ted to produce maximum heat pumping capacity for any a given base temperature and oT, temperature differential 2 s = 6 from hace to tone : DELTA T «DEG 0) 120The problen in maxintzing the dynamic heat pump- fing capacity in transient design is that aT starts: ae zero and tnereases to a final at, aTy. The optinun values for TA and R throughout this excursion are shown in Figure 4 for "steady-state conditions. The values at sty, Th, = 23.4 amps/en and Ry * 2.19, represent the quantities one woutd select to optinize Steady-state performance for the final iT, Howevere a significant variance exists throughout the cool=dovn period and it Ys'not obvious witch 1h and R will maximize Qe. 1 optintzation Cateulations of G, were made for various values of 1. and holding coupte ratfo to Ry. The resuits are illustrated in Figure 5, It ts interesting to note that, although the optimum steady-state 1k varied from zero’to Th, the value that produced the maximun Us Dips mas approximately 55% higher than 19,. The fe ys s symetry of this curve suggests that the penalty for being above or below Taz 1s equal, thus favoring the eft side of the peak from power input considerations. Counle Ratio Ootintzation Cateutations of Q were made hotding 1. to Diy and varying R around 85. The results are {Tlustrated ‘in Figure 6, The value that aaxinized Us Rr vas very close but slightly (eSt) betow R,. ‘Unlike Thy, the value Ry fell within the steady-state range of volues iTlustrated fn Figure 4. FroURE s TIME AVERAGED WEAT euMpING CAPACITY VS. NORWALIZED TN For = e18 Couple ratio is directly assocfated with the magnitude of'a cooler's ultinate steady-state ats Thus as Ris decrensed StontTicantly below Rye & point wiTl, be reached where it fs no longer possible f0 achieve aty. This essentially 4s why the curve drops rapidly to the Teft. The fall-off to the right 4s less sevare and is due’prinariiy to the proportion- aity'smaiter top stage and thus lesser Qo (th. Experiventel A special cooler, Nodel $1154, nas des toned maintaining [1 and Ras close es possible to Lin and zy respectively. Coapored to the original HI £020, one thermoelectric couple was added to the top stage giving the cooler an of 7/3 » 2.33 thereby aporoach= ing closely the value for Ry. Test results are_shown with the computer sfnu~ lation in Figure 7. This data {lustrates not only the progress achieved In overall cool-down speed’ Fron Figure 2 but also serves to validate ee computer simutations. Ficure 6 TIME AVERAGED MEAT PUMPING cAPREETY WS. NOaMALZe0"crur“= Sarto FoR ths 96. 2 aneS/2 _ ass * ase 24 on 7 ' ase an 1 3 as as ' = = 1 Bam ose : IS ace / _ ' f ' an ' aa ! ' : az : ae : ! ' _ ‘ ' as oe Dine ae arConclusions FrouRE 7 Analysis of a small, low-power two-stage thermo- ACTUAL EXPERIVENTAL TRANSIENT PERFORMANCE electric heat pump vas mide inorder to modify it to Gr SP 1150 VS. COMPUTER SIMLATED TRANSIENT {improve cool-down speed. The following procedure was PERFORMANCE derived for re-defining the thermoelectric design Paraneters derived from Steady-state optimization: a 1. Determine the optimum efficiency, steedy- oo 1S 2 oe Gnes/cm state design paraneters for the final 21 RoBi iay'end Rye se 2. Adjust Ry downward by 5%. ey computer 3. Adjust Ta, upward by 558. 30. + lta ‘The above procedure applied to the specific case ze DATA studied inproved Q- and thus cool-down speed by 25%. Further study is undervay to test the above procedure for general applicability as a guideline for caoT= down speed design optinization.