Desirable arrangement of thermoelectric modules for radiant cooling panel

Abstract

The thermoelectric module-based radiant cooling panel (TEM-RCP) has attracted attention as an alternative for conventional hydraulic radiant cooling panels because of its advantages of no refrigerant, no chemical reactions, and no moving parts. In addition, it has merits of easy control and fast response through direct heat absorption from TEM without water. However, there are few guidelines for designing the TEM-RCP and no study has yet suggested how to arrange the thermoelectric modules (TEMs) for the radiant cooling panel. Therefore, this study proposes a desirable arrangement of thermoelectric modules for the radiant cooling panel by developing the design methods for the TEM-RCP based on the semi-black box model of TEM and the two-dimensional finite difference method. A mock-up model of the TEM-RCP was constructed to validate the proposed model and results. The constructed TEM-RCP was composed of seven TEMs, an aluminum plate, a heat sink attached to the TEMs, duct, and fan. The panel temperature at the aluminum radiant panel was maintained at 16 °C. The rejected heat from the hot side of TEM was removed by outdoor air. The design point we focused on herein was the panel temperature distribution according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers Handbook. Therefore, the optimal array and the distance between the TEMs must not exceed the maximum temperature difference of 3°C across a given grid. As a result, the triangular grid was found as the best grid for an even temperature distribution of the TEM-RCP. The optimal distance between the TEMs was 0.2 m to 0.3 m according to the room condition and operation characteristics of the TEM. The optimized results were verified using the mock-up model of the TEM-RCP in the experiments.