Numerical investigation on cooling performance of multilayer pyramid thermoelectric module

A three-dimensional study on the cooling performance of thermoelectric module consisting of multilayer pyra-mid thermoelectric legs is investigated numerically. Two physical models were established for comparison, which are rectangular shaped and multilayer pyramid thermoelectric cooling modules, respectively. This study mainly focuses on the effect of leg height, side ratio and the number of leg layers on the cooling performance of thermoelectric module. Generally, the obtained results showed that the multilayer pyramid module has better cooling performance than that of rectangular shaped module. By increasing the values of side ratio and the number of layers, the maximum reduction of the minimum averaged temperature of cold surface reaches 11.25 K compared to the rectangular shaped module. It is also observed that when the values of side ratio and the number of leg layers are low such as 1.5 and 1, the multilayer pyramid module has not very good cooling performance. Finally, a recommended map on the multilayer pyramid module is presented according to side ratio and the number of leg layers for the different heights of thermoelectric legs to evaluate the cooling performance.