MECH 432 Lab – Thermoelectric Cooler

Laboratory Goals
• Interpret the manufacturer’s datasheet and use their governing equation for the cooling
load of a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) given various material properties and measured
parameters.
• Experimentally determine the coefficient of performance (COP) of a TEC at steady state.
• Measure temperature response of TEC, refrigerated air space, and aluminum specimen.

Questions to Investigate and Answer

1. Starting from ambient temperatures with a TEC mounted in an insulated space, turn on
power to the TEC and observe how the temperature of the hot and cold side of the TEC and
the temperature of the inside and outside of the insulated space change over time. Observe
for at least 30 minutes and answer the following:
a. Why does the COP of the TEC vary with time?
b. How does the steady-state COP of the TEC compare with the COP of a typical vapor-
compression refrigerator?
c. Why does the heat rate from the aluminum specimen �𝑄𝑄̇𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 � reach a maximum value
and then decrease?
2. Would the steady-state values of 𝑄𝑄̇𝑐𝑐 and COP change if more insulation were added to the
walls of the wooden box? If so, how?
3. Compute the thermal resistance of the hot-side and cold-side heat sinks (𝑅𝑅𝑡𝑡ℎ,𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 and
𝑅𝑅𝑡𝑡ℎ,ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 ) at steady-state in°C/W. Do the values seem reasonable? Why or why not?

Test Equipment and Governing Equations

Refer to Melcor’s Thermoelectric Handbook and the Device Performance Formulae in Blackboard.
The coefficient of performance of a device acting as a refrigerator is given by
𝑄𝑄̇𝑐𝑐
𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 =
𝑊𝑊̇𝑒𝑒
Where 𝑄𝑄̇𝑐𝑐 is the heat rate absorbed at the cold junction and 𝑊𝑊̇𝑒𝑒 is the electrical power consumed by
the TEC. The cold junction heat rate can be estimated from the current supplied to the TEC device
(𝐼𝐼𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 ), the measured cold junction temperature (Tc), the measured junction temperature difference
(Th-Tc), geometric parameters, and material properties. Refer to the Device Performance Formulae
document for the specific 𝑄𝑄̇𝑐𝑐 equation (note that temperature units in Kelvin is required for all
parameters). The total electrical power ( 𝑊𝑊̇𝑒𝑒 ) is the product of the measured dc voltage and total
current supplied to the TEC device and fans (𝐼𝐼𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇+𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 ).
The instantaneous heat transfer from the aluminum specimen 𝑄𝑄̇𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 can be determined from the
temperature vs. time data by
Δ𝑇𝑇
𝑄𝑄̇𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 𝜌𝜌𝑐𝑐𝑝𝑝 𝑉𝑉
Δ𝑡𝑡
where 𝜌𝜌 is the mass density of the specimen (2770 kg/m3), 𝑐𝑐𝑝𝑝 is the specific heat of the specimen, 𝑉𝑉
is the volume of the specimen, and Δ𝑇𝑇 is the temperature change of the specimen over the time
increment Δ𝑡𝑡. Note that specific heat is temperature-dependent (see Appendix).

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Equipment, Sensors, and Instrumentation
• TEC mounted in an insulated box
• Four T-type thermocouples for measuring junction and air temperatures
• One K-type thermocouple for measuring specimen temperature
• Aluminum “specimen” 2024-T6 (see Appendix for thermal properties)
• Available aluminum shapes include sphere, cube, cylinder, plate, disk.
• Dial calipers
• Two, 100W (20VDC, 5A) programmable DC power supplies
• Two shunt resistors for TEC and fan current measurement

Data Acquisition System and Measured Parameters

• Fluke Hydra data logger
• PC with Hydra data acquisition software
• Fan current and voltage
• TEC current and voltage
• TEC cold and hot side temperatures
• Inside cooler temperature and outside ambient temperature
• Specimen temperature

Special Precautions
• Do not handle the aluminum specimen directly. Your hands will add heat to the specimen
and change its temperature.
• Be sure all electrical connections are secure and of the correct polarity.
• Ensure that the current is properly limited and that the voltage limits are set properly on
both power supplies as per the procedures below.

Equipment Operating Procedure

Pre-start
1. Aluminum specimen must be in the box. Inside box ambient air thermocouple must be away
from the specimen and sides, bottom, and top of box. Secure lid to box.
2. Power up the PC and start the Fluke Hydra software. Load TEC configuration set-up file.
Select “Edit Hydra Configuration” from the File menu, set interval timing to 15 seconds, and
enable data recording to a user-specified file. Select “Elapsed Time” for time tag and
“Append to File” for data entry.
3. Turn on the Hydra data logger.
4. Start Hydra data logging by clicking the play () button. Start a Quick Plot and make sure
all thermocouple sensors are working.
5. Connect power leads from DC power supplies to the voltage/current data acquisition (DAQ)
box mounted on the side of the cooler box. One pair of leads supplies power to the
thermoelectric module and the other pair supplies power to the fans. Connect leads from
device to appropriate power supply.
6. Turn on fan power supply. Press ISET and then press 1 on the keypad and then enter. Press
VSET followed by the number 12 and press enter. This limits the current to the fans at 1
Amp and sets operating voltage to 12 V.
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 7. Turn on TEC power supply and set the current limit to 5 amps by pressing ISET followed by
5 and then Enter. Set the voltage to 12 V using VSET.
8. Observe the transient heat rate followed by a slow decay toward steady state.
9. Once steady state is reached, turn off power both power supplies, turn off Hydra data
logger.
10. Remove the aluminum specimen from box, carefully measure its dimensions with digital
calipers.

Appendix: Thermal Properties of Al 2024-T6

Aluminum 2024-T6: Thermal Conductivity & Specific Heat vs. Temperature

190 1100

y = 59.25x0.1913
185 1050
R2 = 0.998

180 1000
Thermal Conductivity (W/m-K)

Specific Heat (J/kg-K)

175 950
y = 207.42x0.2515
R2 = 0.9953 k in W/m-K
170 900
cp in J/kg-K

165 850

160 800

155 750

150 700
100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650
Temperature (K)

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Appendix A.