Analysis of a thermoelectrical device for active heat transfer control

Abstract The purpose of this study is to assess a novel and rapid cooling system, which employs a heat transfer control device, realized by the application of a thermoelectric principle (Peltier effect). This system is able to actively control the heat transfer by keeping a subject medium at constant temperature, and a sudden and efficient cooling can be achieved by changing the direction of electric flow in the system. The adopted scheme is very reliable as no moving parts are considered, and can achieve cooling of large heat flux under large temperature differences, which is impossible during steady cooling by standard Peltier elements. The proposed model is solved numerically and the results are compared with those obtained by a small-scale experiment, reported herein. Heat flux comparable to that of boiling R113 was attained from the subject medium: water at 20  ∘ C was cooled down to 0  ∘ C within 4 s.