The influence of the location of a thermoelectric cooler system on refrigeration cabins upon inside air temperatures and velocities

Abstract

The theory of thermoelectric cooling systems have already been studied for long time ago. The aim of this work is to investigate their use in household refrigerators that usually are based on vapor compression cycles. Being a small piece of equipment and for the typical thermal loads of refrigerators, it allows more useful space and can be placed anywhere inside. In this work, several simulations were carried out using the CFD software Fluent in order to investigate the better location of the cold plate upon the inside air temperatures and velocity profiles, either with natural convection (fan off) either with forced convection (fan on). After comparing the results obtained in several possible locations of the TEC in refrigeration cabins, it was found that the best place is at the center of the top surface with forced convection.