The Potential of a Thermoelectric Heat Dissipation System: An Analytical Study

Thermoelectric heat dissipation systems offer unique advantages over conventional systems, including vibration-free operation, environmental sustainability, and enhanced controllability. This study examined the benefits of incorporating a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) into conventional heat sinks and investigated strategies to improve heat dissipation efficiency. A theoretical model introducing a dimensionless evaluation index () is proposed to assess the system’s performance, which measures the ratio of the heat dissipation density of a conventional heat dissipation system to that of a thermoelectric heat dissipation system. Here, we subjectively consider 0.9 as a cutoff, and when , the thermoelectric heat dissipation system shows substantial superiority over conventional ones. In contrast, for , the advantage of the thermoelectric system weakens, making conventional systems more attractive. This analysis examined the effects of engineering leg length (), the heat transfer allocation ratio (), and temperature difference () on heat dissipation capabilities. The results indicated that under a fixed heat source temperature, heat sink temperature, and external heat transfer coefficient, an optimal engineering leg length exists, maximizing the system’s heat dissipation performance. Furthermore, a detailed analysis revealed that the thermoelectric system demonstrated exceptional performance under small temperature differences, specifically when the temperature difference was below 32 K with the current thermoelectric (TE) materials. For moderate temperature differences between 32 K and 60 K, the system achieved optimal performance when . This work establishes a theoretical foundation for applying thermoelectric heat dissipation systems and provides valuable insights into optimizing hybrid heat dissipation systems.