• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2079-2084
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• 2007

A small-scale thermoelectric cooling system was built in an effort to enhance the performance of the refrigeration system by utilizing the water-cooled jacket which was attached on the hot side of the thermoelectric module. Considered design parameters for the water-cooled jacket included the geometry of the flow passage inside the jacket and the flow rate of cooling water. The higher flow rate of cooling water in the jacket resulted in a better performance of the refrigeration system. The introduction of geometrical complexity of the cooling water flow passage to the cooling jacket also showed significant improvement on the performance of the thermoelectric refrigeration system such as the cooling capacity and the COP of the refrigeration system.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.641-646
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to improve the cooling performance of single and cascade refrigeration systems using thermoelectric modules. The system consists of a heat sink, fan, and thermoelectric module. The operating parameters considered in this study include power distribution between the first- and second-stage thermoelectric modules, air flow, and variable condensing unit. The cooling capacity increased with decreases in the temperature difference between hot and cold surfaces, but decreased with increases in the condensing temperature. The COP decreased with increasing electric power of the thermoelectric module because of the increased Joule heat. The cooling performance improvement using the thermoelectric module is represented by the freezer temperature.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.149-156
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• 2009

A small-scale thermoelectric cooling system was built in an effort to enhance the performance of the refrigeration system by utilizing the water-cooled jacket which was attached to the hot side of the thermoelectric module. Considered design parameters for the water-cooled jacket were the geometry of the flow passage inside the jacket and the flow rate of cooling water. The higher flow rate of cooling water in the jacket resulted in a better performance of the refrigeration system. The increase in the number of channels for water flow passage inside the cooling jacket also showed significant improvement on the performance of the thermoelectric cooling system such as the cooling capacity and the COP of the refrigeration system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.05b
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• pp.50-53
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• 2001

The thermoelectric refrigeration technologies have no moving parts. compressor, or piping required. In this study, the basic capacity of thermoelectric devices and development on some thermoelectric refrigerator were reviewed and basic technical concepts related with many kinds of thermoelectric materials were discussed. Especially the result of performance test on thermoelectric refrigerator whose minimum temperature of $-2^{\circ}C$ was introduced briefly.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.976-981
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• 2006

In case of attaching thermoelectric module and heat source, the polymer pad is attached on the $Al_2O_3$ plate, which is cooling side of thermoelectric module, in order to enhance mechanical safety of the system. It is impossible to calculate the exact distribution of temperature and flow pattern of inner gap of thermoelectric module. Therefore CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis was executed to determine the thermo-fluid phenomena and distribution by Fluent. As the result of these analysis, heat transfer was dominated by conduction and the difference of temperature was linear distribution according to the thickness of polymer sheet.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.409-414
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• 2012

A theoretical investigation to optimize thermoelectric elements for thermoelectric coolers was performed using a new one-dimensional analytic model. Mathematical expressions for the optimum current and the optimum length of a thermoelectric element, which maximize the coefficient of performance of thermoelectric coolers, were obtained. The optimum current is expressed in terms of the cooling load for a thermoelectric element, the hot and cold side temperatures and thermoelectric properties, but not the length of a thermoelectric element. The optimum current is proportional to the cooling load and decreases as the temperature difference between the hot and cold sides decreases. It is also shown that the optimum length of a thermoelectric element decreases as the cooling load increases.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 2004

Thermoelectric module is a device that can produce cooling in a direct manner using the electrical energy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of thermoelectric module and cooling system equipped with the thermoelectric module. The performance of a thermoelectric module is estimated using two methods; theoretical analysis based on one-dimensional energy equations and experimental tests using heat source, heat sink and brass conduction extenders. For the thermoelectric cooling system, the temperatures in the chamber are recorded and then compared with those of lumped system analysis. The results show that the cooling capacity and COP of the thermoelectric module increases as the temperature difference between hot and cold surface decreases, and there is particular current at which cooling capacity reaches its maximum value. The experimental results for the thermoelectric cooling system are similar to those of lumped system analysis.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.329-334
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• 2014

This study indicated the possibility of energy regeneration from waste coolant heat, by using thermoelectric generation integrated with heat pipe. The internal combustion engine rejects more than 60% wasteful energy to the atmosphere by heat. The thermoelectric generator has recently been studied, to convert the energy from engine waste heat into electricity. For coolant waste heat recovery, a thermoelectric generator was investigated, to find out the possibility of vehicular application. Performance characteristics were conducted with various test conditions of coolant temperature, coolant mass flow rate, air temperature, and air velocity, with the thermoelectric generator installed either horizontally or vertically. Experimental results show that the electric power and conversion efficiency increases according to the temperature difference between the hot and cold side of the thermoelectric generator, and the coolant flow rate of the hot side heat exchanger. Performance improvement can be expected by optimizing the heat pipe design.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.224-230
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• 2014

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of supplemental cooling and heating system equipped with the 1 kW thermoelectric module. The system consist of 96 thermoelectric modules, heat sink with louver fin and water cooling jacket which is attached on the hot side of the thermoelectric module. The cooling and heating performance test of the thermoelectric system is conducted with various conditions, such as intake voltage, air inlet temperature, air flow volume, water inlet temperature and water flow rate at calorimeter chamber in consideration of environmental conditions in realistic vehicle drive. The experimental results of a thermoelectric system shows that the cooling capacity and COP is 1.03 kW, and 1.0, and heating capacity and COP is 1.53 kW, and 1.5 respectively.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.162-168
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• 2007

This paper presents the effects of thermoelectric module arrangement on the cooling performance of an air conditioner using thermoelectric module. A prototype of air cooling system, employing several thermoelectric modules, has been designed and built. The evaporative cooling technique is adopted for hot side of the module. The number of thermoelectric module in the system has been varied in the range of $2{\sim}8$. The optimal operation conditions, such as input power to the thermoelectric module, fans and pump, have been determined for each arrangement of the system and the cooling performance has been compared under the optimal operation. It is found that both cooling capacity and COP are increased as the number of thermoelectric module increased. It is also found that cooling capacity can be improved by connecting the thermoelectric modules in series than in parallel, while the COP is little affected.