The optimization design and parametric study of thermoelectric radiant cooling and heating panel

Abstract Thermoelectric radiant air-conditioning (TE-RAC) system is a promising approach to implement thermoelectric technology in large-scale refrigeration system applications in future. However, no standard exists for the in situ design and the performance evaluation of thermoelectric radiant heating/cooling panel. Thus, this study aims to not only clarify the design procedure but also to share our thermal physical model and design configurations of the thermoelectric radiant panel to serve as a reference for other similar design cases. In addition, a simplified representation approach for the thermal characterization of thermoelectric panels is also discussed. The main design variables are the number of thermoelectric modules and the size of radiant panels. The inner surface transient temperature distribution of thermoelectric radiant panels is discussed, and the approaches for improving the uniformity of the inner surface temperature are proposed. The influence of cooling/heating load on the uniformity of the inner surface temperature is a slight larger than the size of the panel, so the matching design is very important. The results show that the optimal thickness of thermoelectric radiant panels is 4 mm, and the number of thermoelectric modules (TEM) is 16 per square meter, which also could solve the issues about dew formation and uniformity of inner surface temperature.

[1]  Bjarne W. Olesen.  New European standards for design, dimensioning and testing embedded radiant heating and cooling systems. , 2007 .

[2]  Fu Xiao,et al.  Investigation of a novel thermoelectric radiant air-conditioning system , 2013 .

[3]  Richard D. Watson,et al.  Radiant Heating and Cooling Handbook , 2008 .

[4]  G. Tan,et al.  A review of thermoelectric cooling: Materials, modeling and applications , 2014 .

[5]  D. Rowe.  Thermoelectrics Handbook , 2005 .

[6]  Gang Chen,et al.  Heat Transfer in Thermoelectric Materials and Devices , 2013 .

[7]  Fu Xiao,et al.  Numerical and experimental analysis of transient supercooling effect of voltage pulse on thermoelectric element , 2012 .

[8]  Lei Xie,et al.  Modeling of the surface temperature field of a thermoelectric radiant ceiling panel system , 2016 .

[9]  Jian Zuo,et al.  Green building research–current status and future agenda: A review , 2014 .

[10]  P. Ariel.  Generalized Gear's method for computing the flow of a viscoelastic fluid , 1997 .

[11]  Cheng Zhang,et al.  Research on the actual cooling performance of ceiling radiant panel , 2012 .

[12]  S. Atthajariyakul,et al.  Experimental performance of a thermoelectric ceiling cooling panel , 2008 .

[13]  Ruzhu Wang,et al.  Experimental investigation on the heat transfer performance and water condensation phenomenon of radiant cooling panels , 2014 .

[14]  Ling Zhang,et al.  Experimental evaluation of a solar thermoelectric cooled ceiling combined with displacement ventilation system , 2014 .

[15]  Ling Zhang,et al.  Experimental evaluation of an active solar thermoelectric radiant wall system , 2015 .

[16]  Ibrahim Atmaca,et al.  Effects of radiant temperature on thermal comfort , 2007 .

[17]  Myoung Souk Yeo,et al.  Design of radiant floor heating panel in view of floor surface temperatures , 2015 .

[18]  Jacques Miriel,et al.  Radiant ceiling panel heating–cooling systems: experimental and simulated study of the performances, thermal comfort and energy consumptions , 2002 .