A new concept of porous thermoelectric module using a reciprocating flow for cooling/heating system (numerical analysis for heating system)

The paper presents the conceptual design of a novel thermoelectric cooler and/or heater utilizing the heat transfer effect due to forced convection. A porous thermoelectric converter combined with a reciprocating flow system in which the flow direction of air passing through the element is reversed after regular intervals is proposed. This flow system in effect makes the thermal conductivity insignificant and contributes toward the achievement of a highly efficient cooler and/or heater. A one-dimensional numerical analysis is performed to examine the detailed characteristics of the porous thermoelectric heater by systematically varying the relevant thermo-fluid parameters. In the calculation, for a fixed ambient temperature of 27°C, dependences of the flow velocity, material porosity, and input power on the system performance are clarified. Moreover, a series of computation is carried out in order to obtain the system´s COP