Research PaperA numerical study on the performance of the thermoelectric module with different heat sink shapes

- Experimental and numerical investigations were carried out for TEMs with heat sinks.
- Experimental investigations for TEMs were carried out to validate the numerical method.
- A TEM model was developed using the FLUENT and user-defined functions (UDF).
- The performance of the TEMs was analyzed by the temperature variation over time.
- The effects of the various parameters of heat sinks attached the TEM were discussed.

Experimental and numerical investigations were carried out for a system including the thermoelectric modules with heat sinks inside a square duct. A thermoelectric module model was developed using the commercial computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT and user-defined functions (UDF). The performance of a thermoelectric module was analyzed by a visualization technique of temperature variation over time. In this study, UDFs are employed to specify the heat flux terms of the cooling capacity and the heat generation of thermoelectric modules. As a result, the data obtained with the numerical method was generally in good agreement with those obtained by the experiments over time at each inlet temperature. Detailed effects of the various parameters of heat sinks attached the thermoelectric module were discussed, and consequently these parameters had a great influence upon the performance of the thermoelectric module.