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Achieving high efficiency thermoelectric heating and cooling with metal foam heat exchangers

This thesis examines the development of a high efficiency heat pump system using
thermoelectric (TE) and reticulated metal foam (RMF) technologies to power a vehicle`s
battery thermal management system. The focus is split into two areas: first a review of
TE???s sourcing or removing heat, second an examination of compact heat exchanger (HX)
design. Five TE suppliers were investigated to understand the performance and
limitations of their TE modules. Testing showed the Kyrotherm product to be superior so
it was used as a design basis. RMF???s are known to be an effective means to improve the
performance of compact heat exchangers, thus HX???s were evaluated with RMF foams
compressed to varying densities in order to understand their potential in conjunction with
thermoelectric devices. Experimental results showed performance was limited due to
adequate bonding, yet still on par with the highest efficiency technologies currently on the
market.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OOSHDU.10155/429
Date01 April 2014
CreatorsClark, Gavin
ContributorsRohrauer, Greg
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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