Numerical simulations and optimized design on the performance and thermal stress of a thermoelectric cooler

In this article, the geometric optimum design of a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is simulated by Finite Element Analysis. We studied the influence of the geometric structure on TEC parameters including the thermoelectric leg size, the separation distance of P/N legs, the distance from leg edge to copper edge and the copper thickness on the maximum temperature difference, the coefficient of performance (COP) and thermal stress. After optimizing designing, the TEC presented superior cooling performance and high operational reliability. The result demonstrates that the leg height plays the most important role in maximum temperature difference (ΔTmax) and thermal stress. At different thermoelectric leg width, by optimizing leg height, the ΔTmax can enhance about 9.079 K and the maximum thermal stress can reduce about 72.4 MPa. When the leg height is greater than 0.8 mm, its influence on temperature difference and thermal stress decreases. The separation distance of P/N legs play the most important role in the COP. By optimizing separation distance of P/N legs, the maximum temperature difference and COP all obtain the maximum value of 61.407 K, 0.663.