PERFORMANCE OF TWO-STEP THERMOELECTRIC-ADSORPTION HEAT PUMP FOR HARSH

ENVIRONMENT ELECTRONICS COOLING

Ashish Sinha, Yogendra Joshi

George W Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA, USA 30332
Phone: (404)-720-4168
Email: ashish.sinha@gatech.edu

ABSTRACT T Temperature- (K)

Performance of a two-stage thermoelectric adsorption heat TE Thermo-Electric
pump for electronics cooling in a thermally harsh environment U A term representing thermal conductance (W-K-1)
has been presented. Adsorption heat pumps have few moving kte Thermal conductivity of the thermo-electric
parts, which make them suitable for use in harsh environments material, Bismuth Telluride (Bi2Te3). (W-m-1- K-
1
that are prone to mechanical shock and high temperatures. Use )
of a thermoelectric device for heat regeneration during the
adsorption-desorption process promises to make the system Greek symbols
compact enough for electronic enclosures. Two-step Electrical resistance ()
adsorption aims to reduce the thermal variations at the hot and th Thermal resistance (K-W-1)
cold faces of the thermoelectric device, thus enhancing its Thermal mass (J-K-1)
performance. Here, adsorption takes place at two different Seebeck coefficient of the thermo-electric
pressures and this requires two evaporators at two different material, Bismuth Telluride (Bi2Te3). (V-K-1)
temperatures. This is unlike most conventional adsorption Electrical resistivity of Bismuth Telluride
systems where adsorption takes place at a single evaporator (Bi2Te3). (-m).
pressure. An experimental setup (for two-step adsorption) was
fabricated and tested for a heat rejection temperature of 185 0C Subscripts
and cooling load of up to 6W. Experiments were also carried C Pertaining to condenser
out for a single step (conventional) adsorption cycle for E Pertaining to evaporator
similar conditions. This allowed comparing the performance a Ambient
of two-step modified adsorption cycle vis--vis single step ads Adsorption
conventional adsorption cycle. COPs of 0.2 and 0.3 were avg Referring to average of properties attributed to
observed for conventional and modified cycles respectively. the hot and cold sides of a TE device
b Pertaining to bed (bed i or bed j)
KEY WORDS: Adsorption, Thermoelectric, Regenerative, c, cond Pertaining to condenser
Electronics, Cooling, Harsh, Environment d Desorption
e, evap Pertaining to evaporator
i Pertaining to bed i
NOMENCLATURE in Input
j Pertaining to bed j
C Point on Clausius diagram denoting condenser ref Refrigerant
COP Coefficient of Performance tec , te Thermo-Electric Cooler (TE Device)
Cp Specific Heat Capacity (J kg-1 K-1) z Zeolite
E Point on Clausius diagram denoting evaporator
F, G, Points on the Clausius diagram of the adsorption
H, I cycle. INTRODUCTION
G Geometric Factor of the TE device. Ratio of area Work by several researchers on miniature sorption systems [1-
to length of a thermoelectric junction. (m) 4] suggests the use of sorption systems for electronics cooling.
M, m Mass (Kg) Gordon et al [1] and Ng et al [2] have done detailed
N Number of thermo-electric junctions in a TE theoretical study as well as performed experiments on the
device. prototype of an adsorption system designed to address an
P, p Pressure (milibars, 1 bar = 100 kPa) electronics cooling load of up to 120 W. The heat rejection
Pow Power (W)

978-1-4244-5343-6/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

temperature varied from 40 0C to 50 0C, with the electronics
being maintained between 20 0C to 30 0C.
In comparison to several other thermal management systems
such as vapor compression refrigeration (driven by centrifugal
or reciprocating compressors), thermo-acoustic etc, adsorption
systems have the advantage of having few moving parts by the
virtue of vapor compression by chemical action rather than
mechanical (hence enhanced reliability with less maintenance
issues). Also unlike mechanical compressors, adsorption
compressors (and hence the adsorption cooling system) can be
scaled to smaller sizes without any loss of efficiency [1, 2, 5].
This makes adsorption systems more suitable for typically
miniature electronic enclosures. While smaller cooling
systems, such as ThermoElectric (TE) coolers, that are easily
available and compact enough to cool electronics do exist,
their coefficient of performance is less when compared to
what has been achieved by thermoelectric-adsorption coolers
as described by Gordon et al [1] and Ng et al [2].
Passive thermal management techniques such as heat pipes,
heat spreaders, heat sinks etc are less desirable for maintaining
electronics below the ambient temperature during sustained
operation [2, 6]. Few passive techniques such as phase
change heat storage [7], evaporative cooling [8], fluid
circulation [9], etc need a working substance such as
evaporative fluid and phase change material. Such systems are
limited in their thermal management capability by the amount
of working substance they carry. Continuous operation
requires frequent recharge/ refills. Thermal insulation [10] is
simple to implement, but while it prevents ambient heat from
reaching electronics, it also prevents escape of heat dissipated
by electronics.
The characteristics of an adsorption cooling system and its
comparison with various other cooling techniques (as
described in the paragraphs above), make it attractive as a
thermal management option for conditions that require
compactness, reliability and continuous active cooling. Such
requirements need to be met for cooling electronics in a
thermally harsh environment [6, 11-12].
Several industrial processes that involve a thermally harsh
environment (figure 1), need availability of high temperature
(>150 0C) compatible electronics, however current state of the
art in electronics packing technologies suggests that this will
need further research [13-15]. Current industry practices
include, using custom made electronic modules that are pre-
tested for survivability above 175 0C [16, 17] and/or
incorporating passive thermal management technologies for
short-term operation [7-10]. These practices reduce electronics
reliability and are usually not cost effective. With the need for
electronics application in a thermally harsh environment set to
grow [18], and the availability of compatible electronic
modules a distant reality, a thermal management technology
suitable for a thermally harsh environment (150-250 0C) may
help increase operating envelope of existing electronics
towards a high temperature region. This is where adsorption
based cooling systems can play an important role.
Extreme Temperature range for various applications
Combustion Chamber
Space Application
Nuclear Power Instrumentation
Oil Exploration
Medicine
Auto On Engine
Auto Under Hood
Telecom/ PDA's
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Temperature in degrees Celcius
Fig 1 Temperature range for various electronics applications [13-15].
Since the application of adsorption systems have already been
investigated for near room temperature cooling by Gordon et
al [1] and Ng et al [2], it becomes worthwhile to investigate
their application for thermally harsher environments. Sinha et
al [6, 11] have described the challenges that may arise in high
temperature application of a system similar to the one
investigated by Gordon et al [1] and Ng et al [2]. Since the
system uses a TE device for regeneration of heat of adsorption
in between adsorbent beds, one of the critical challenges
relates to the reliability of a TE device at harsher temperatures.
The TE device provides a compact means to transfer heat
between adsorbent beds, and allows for a miniature adsorption
system. The TE device performance directly affects the COP
of the overall system [1], hence the vital importance of TE
device reliability. It has been shown that TE device
performance in pumping heat across a temperature difference
gradually decreases with increasing temperature of application
[11]. For a typical harsh environment application (heat
rejection temperature of 200 0C and heat source temperature of
150 0C), temperature at adsorbent beds can reach upto 250 0C,
which is close to the operating limits of commercially
available TE devices, hence the need to reduce the highest
temperature in an adsorption cycle. With a view to mitigate
these challenges, Sinha et al [6] proposed to carry out
adsorption and desorption in two-steps to reduce thermal
variations during the adsorption cycle and bring down the
highest temperature encountered. High temperature
experiments on an adsorption heat pump prototype that used
Zeolite-Water (instead of Silica Gel-Water [1, 2]) as
adsorbent-adsorbate pair were performed and reported in the
literature [12] by Sinha et al. The adsorption-desorption
processes were carried out in single step. In this paper, the
authors have reported performance of a system similar to the
one used earlier [12], but with adsorption and desorption
processes broken in two-steps.
In the subsequent sections the working of the adsorption heat
pump with TE device assisted heat regeneration has been
described, followed by an explanation of challenges that can
crop up at higher temperatures. This is followed by a detailed
description of the schematic of the experimental prototype.
Experimental procedure and results are described
subsequently.
2
 WORKING OF A THERMOELECTRIC ADSORPTION
HEAT PUMP
The TE-adsorption-cooling system discussed in detail in [1, 2,
6, 11 -12] has been shown in figure 2(a). The thermodynamic
representation of the adsorption cycle in a single adsorbent
bed has been shown in figure 2(b) on a Clausius diagram. It
must be noted that a Clausius diagram is widely used to
describe adsorption processes [19 -22]. In such a diagram the
negative reciprocal of temperature in adsorbent beds ( (1 / T ) )
is plotted on the abscissa. It must be noted that the value of
(1 / T ) increases with increasing values of T .
Heat released to surroundings
Condenser
Valve 1
Valve 4
Capillary tube
Adsorption
TE devices
Bed 1
Valve 2
Evaporator
Fig (a)
Heat from electronic chips
Desorption
PC
C G
Isosteric
heating
recovery
PE
E
F Adsorption I
-(1/T)
Fig (b)
Fig 2: (a) Schematic of the TE device assisted Adsorption system as
proposed by Gordon et al [1]. (b) Thermodynamic representation of
states of working fluid on a Clausius diagram. Fluids in both
adsorbent beds follow this cycle with a phase shift, such that
Desorption and Isosteric cooling in one of the beds respectively
accompany Adsorption and Isosteric heating in another. Heat
recovery is transfer of heat from process H-I in one bed to process F-
G in another. Heat regeneration is transfer of heat from process I-F in
one bed to process G-H in another.
One complete adsorption cycle comprises of four stages. (1.)
Adsorption, (2.) Isosteric-heating, (3.) Desorption and (4.)
Isosteric-cooling, in the same order. In a two bed adsorption
heat pump, the beds operate with a phase difference, such that
adsorption in one is accompanied by desorption in another,
and isosteric heating in one is accompanied by isosteric
cooling in the other. Referring to figure 2(a)-(b), and assuming
adsorption in bed 1 (desorption in bed 2), valves 2, 4 would be
open, whereas the rest would be closed. During this phase
refrigerant vapors from evaporator are adsorbed in bed 1 and
desorbed to condenser from bed 2. The heat released during
exothermic adsorption process is pumped from bed 1 to bed 2
by the TE device (also referred to as heat regeneration). In the
next phase all the valves are closed and bed 2 is cooled to
evaporator pressure, where as bed 1 is heated to condenser
pressure. TE device aids the transfer of heat from bed 2 to bed
1 (heat recovery). Finally valves 1 and 3 are opened and the
rest kept closed. This allows adsorption of vapors from
evaporator into bed 2 and desorption of vapors from bed 1 to
condenser. Heat released during adsorption in bed 2 is now
pumped to bed 1 by the TE device. The beds thus reverse their
roles and the cycle repeats. TE device is used to transfer heat
from the exothermic adsorption process to the endothermic
desorption process (also called heat regeneration) and from
isosteric cooling process to the isosteric heating process (also
called heat recovery). It must be noted that heat regeneration
Desorption
refers to transfer of heat from a bed at low to a bed at high
Bed 2
temperature, whereas heat recovery refers to heat transfer from
a bed at high temperature to a bed at low temperature.
CHALLENGES DUE TO HIGH TEMPERATURE
Valve 3 APPLICATION
The temperature variation (thermal swing) and the highest
temperature faced during the cycle (as shown in figure 3) pose
challenges to the operation of TE device. It has been shown in
an earlier work [11] that the performance of a TE device
decreases with increasing average of its hot and cold face
temperatures. In the case of low temperature application as
H
described by Gordon et al [1] and Ng et al [2], this is not
much of a concern as the highest temperatures encountered are
up to 80 0C, which is much lower than 250 0C, the temperature
that TE devices may face for a typical high temperature
Isosteric application. A modified cycle was proposed by the authors to
cooling mitigate these challenges. Figure 4 shows a Clausius diagram
of the modified cycle superimposed on an unmodified cycle.
Occurrence of highest
cycle temperature
C G H
PC
log(P)
PE
E F I
- (1/T) Thermal swing
Fig 3: Clausius diagram of an adsorption cycle showing thermal
swing (maximum temperature variation during the entire cycle) and
the highest temperature encountered (also the highest regeneration
temperature at point H)
3
 Reduction in EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE
temperature at H
An experimental set-up was fabricated and assembled
C G H
PC in our laboratory. The set up is the same as used in an earlier
C1 work [12], except for an extra evaporator unit. Figure 6 shows
PC1 G1 H1 the schematic of the set-up. A brief description of the parts of
the set up is given below.
Oil -bath
log(P)

Condenser
P3
coils
V4
PE1 F1 I1
V2
E1

Capillary tube
PE

TE Devices
E F I
P1 P2

Bed j
Bed i
- (1/T) Greater thermal swing

Less thermal swing

Fig 4: Modified cycle as suggested by the authors, superimposed on a

conventional cycle. The reduction in thermal swing and the retreat of
V1 P4
highest regeneration temperature at H towards a lower temperature
regime must be noted. V3
Evaporator 1
The proposed solution breaks the adsorption and desorption V6
stages into two steps, thus reducing the thermal swing and the V8
V5
highest temperature observed during the cycle. The modified Evaporator 2 V7
cycle has two condensers and two evaporators. Though more
complex in realization than the un-modified (conventional)
V9
cycle, the modified cycle will allow flexibility in distribution Resistive
of the cooling load among two evaporators at slightly different heater
temperatures. For experimental purpose however a slight To water fill station/
modification was done to accommodate a simple apparatus. vacuum pump
Instead of two condensers, only one condenser was chosen
Condenser
while the number of evaporators was still maintained at two.
Oil- bath
Figure 5 describes the accompanying Clausius diagram for
such a case.
Pump

C G H H
PC
C1
PC1
Bed j
Bed i
3 Way valve

Resistive
F1 I1
PE1 heater
E1 Fig 6: (Top) Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up showing
PE
E F I I
condenser, evaporator(s), adsorbent beds and the refrigerant flow
loop. (Bottom) Schematic diagram of the cooling fluid loop through
- (1/T) Greater thermal swing the adsorbent beds. P1...4 are the pressure transducers. Valves V1..V5
are three way valves. valves V6-V9 are two way valves. V1 and V2
Less thermal swing help connect beds with either condenser or evaporator. Valves V3 and
V4 help measure evaporator and condenser inlet and outlet pressure
by using just two pressure transducers (P3 and P4). V5 helps connect
Thermal swing (slightly
greater) any one of evaporator with the adsorbent beds. V6 and V7 connect
Fig 5: Clausius diagram of a cycle (I-F-F1-G-H-I) with a single evaporators with capillary tube. V8 allows for water to pass from
condenser and two evaporator arrangement. The arrangement leads to evaporator 1 to 2 during filling operation. Also helps keep
a small increase in thermal swing. In this arrangement, process H-G1 evaporators isolated during operation. V9 provides a link to water
as shown in figure 4 is merged into process G-H by keeping the fill/ vacuum station.
desorbing bed exposed to condenser pressure.

4
Adsorbent Beds and Thermoelectric Assembly
The adsorption bed was made out of stainless steel shell and
copper plate. The steel shell had a semi-circular cross-section
measuring 6.3 cm in diameter and 20 cm in length. Steel end
caps were provided on either end with provisions for vapor
outlet/ inlet, resistive heater, thermal probe and cooling fluid
pipes. Perforated fins were brazed on to the inward face of the
copper plate for efficient heat transfer into the zeolite mass.
Fins were perforated so that the vapor transport inside bed
should not be hindered. Figure 7 shows a cut out view of the
adsorption bed. Copper plate was brazed to the steel casing for
a pressure tight enclosure. Zeolite-13X beads measuring 1.58
mm in diameter (SYLOBEAD-514 from Grace Davison) was
used to fill up the space inside the bed. Five TE devices (HT8-
7-30 from Laird Technologies) were placed on the copper face
and sandwiched between two beds. Thermal interface pads
(Gap Pad 500S35 from Bergquist Company) were used to
provide thermal connection between the copper and the TE
device surfaces.
Steel casing
Cooling fluid pipes
Evaporator and Condenser
The evaporator is a partially water filled cylindrical stainless
steel chamber with end caps designed to have provisions for
refrigerant (water) inlet-outlet, capillary tube and vapor outlet
to adsorption beds and a resistive heater. The resistive heater
simulates power dissipation by an electronic chip module. The
condenser is realized by coiled steel tubing (1m in length, with
an inner and outer diameter of 4.8and 6.4 mm respectively)
immersed in an oil bath (glycol based heat transfer fluid with
the commercial name Duratherm G). The refrigerant circuit
between the condenser and evaporator was completed by a
steel-tubing (diameter 1/16th of an inch), which acted as an
expansion valve.
Harsh Environment
The condenser assembly was placed inside an oven. The oven
was equipped with a temperature control unit that enabled
precise control of heat rejection temperature. For the rest of
the set up (comprising of adsorbent beds, evaporator and
tubing work) that was placed outside the oven for easy
handling during experiment, the simulation of harsh
temperature was achieved by pre-heating and keeping the heat
trapped by heavy insulation.

Table 1: Some key parameters of the adsorption bed

Copper plate Mb (b = i,j) 1.2176 kg

Perforated copper fins
Cpb (b = i,j) 454.93 J-kg-1-K-1
Inert thermal mass = Mb x Cpb 553.92 J-K-1
Mz b (b = i,j) 0.185 kg
CpZ 1000 J-kg-1-K-1
Active thermal mass = Mz b x CpZ 185 J-K-1
Inert mass ratio = (Mz b x CpZ )/(Mz b x CpZ) 0.33
b ( b = i,j) 96
TE devices
Ub ambient (b = i,j) 0.1 W-K-1
Number of TE devices sandwiched in between
beds 5

Bed j Table 2: Some key parameters of the evaporator and

condenser

Bed i
Me 0.73 kg
Cpe 500 J-kg-1-K-1
Mc 0.42 kg
Cpc 500 J-kg-1-K-1
Fig 7: (Top) A cut-out section of the adsorption bed. The cooling fluid e 411
lines and perforated fins attached to copper plate could be seen here. Ue ambient 0.063 W-K-1
(Middle) Back view of the bed, which includes the copper plates and
Uc oilbath 3.5 W-K-1
TE devices attached with the help of a thermal interface material.
(Bottom) Two adsorbent beds close together with TE device
sandwiched in between.

5
 Table 3: Some key parameters of the TE device Table 5: Operating conditions for the two-step modified
adsorption cycle.
i_te (thermal mass of TE device face adjacent to
bed i. Ceramic plate made up of Al2O3) 2.76 J-K-1 Step # Heat Valve Valve Valve Valve Valve
j_te (thermal mass of TE device face adjacent to (time) pumped 1 2 5 6 7
bed j. Ceramic plate made up of Al2O3) 3.13 J-K-1 TE volts from
N 71 Step 1 bed i to evap - bed j - to evap1 closed
-2 (4mins) bed j bed i cond evap1
G 0.171x10
6V
thi te 0.76 K-W-1 Step 2 bed j to closed bed j - to evap1 closed
thj te 0.76 K-W-1 (2mins) bed i cond evap1
3V
= 4.35x10-8x Tavg-2.754x10-6 ; Tavg = (Ti
te + Tj te)/2
-5 2
Step 3 bed i to evap - bed j - to closed evap2
kte= 2.91x10 xTavg -0.019xTavg+4.81 ; (4mins) bed j bed i cond evap2
= -2.025x10-9xTavg2+1.42x10-6x Tavg-4.49x10-5; 6V
Step 4 bed j to closed closed to closed evap2
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE (2mins) bed i evap2
3V
To start the experiment, the oven (housing the condenser unit)
Step 5 bed j to evap - bed i - to evap1 closed
is heated to the condenser temperature. The resistive heaters
(4mins) bed i bed j cond evap1
inside the bed are also activated to heat the bed to a 6V
temperature somewhere in between evaporator and condenser Step 6 bed i to closed bed i - to evap1 closed
temperatures (~145 0C). This process desorbs some moisture (2mins) bed j cond evap1
content in the beds. Further the set-up is evacuated by a 3V
vacuum pump. Desorbed vapors along with the non- Step 7 bed j to evap - bed i - to closed evap2
condensable air inside the set-up are driven out. Degassed (4mins) bed i bed j cond evap2
water is introduced into the evaporator and the evaporator- 6V
heater is switched on. Once the evaporator reaches a Step 8 bed i to closed closed to closed evap2
temperature in the vicinity of 140 0C, applying suitable (2mins) bed j evap2
3V
voltage across the TE device, and operating the valves that
connect the beds to evaporator and condenser, initiate the
adsorption cycle. However, since the condenser pressure starts Table 6: Operating conditions for the single-step
to build up from near vacuum conditions, the expansion valve conventional adsorption cycle.
(small diameter capillary tube) connecting the condenser and
evaporator is not opened for refrigerant flow until the
condenser pressure rises above that of evaporator. The Direction of
TE heat pump
experiment is carried till the time that a steady behavior is
Time device by TE
observed in the temperature variation of the evaporator (i.e. (mins) voltage device Valve 1 Valve 2
the rise in temperature of evaporator is less than 1 0C per
hour). evap - cond -
Step 1 8 6V bed i - bed j bed i bed j
In subsequent sections results have been presented for a case Step 2 4 3V bed j - bed i closed closed
where the experiments were started with the following initial evap - cond -
(table 4) and operating conditions (table 5 and 6). Tables 5 and Step 3 8 6V bed j - bed i bed j bed i
6 show one complete block of operations that are repeated as Step 4 4 3V bed I - bed j closed closed
the experiment continues. For the two-step cycle, steps 1-8 are
repeated cyclically and likewise for the single-step cycle, steps
1-4 are repeated cyclically. The experiments were designed The easy adaptability of the experimental set up for single
such that repetitive block for both cycles take same amount of step conventional adsorption cycle allowed experiments to
time (i.e 24 minutes). Since there are two beds involved, the be performed for both modified (two-step) and conventional
cycle time for both cycles was 12 minutes. (single step) adsorption cycles. It must be noted that while
Table 4: Initial conditions operating for the modified cycle, valves 8 and 9 always
remained close. During operation as conventional cycle, one
Water content in each evaporator 350 ml of the evaporator (evaporator 1) was isolated by making V5
Water content in the condenser 0 ml connect to evaporator 2, closing V6 and keeping V7 open.
Temperature in evaporators 145 0C
Heat rejection temperature 188 0C
Temperature of adsorbent beds 150 0C

6
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS transducer always measured the pressure of evaporator
connected to an adsorbing bed.

Figure 10 compares the temperature behavior of a two-step

(modified) adsorption cycle with a single-step (conventional)
adsorption cycle for the same time duration. It can be observed
that the bed temperatures in the single step adsorption cycle
are higher than that of the 2-step adsorption cycle. The thermal
swing (or the difference between extremes of temperature
observed in a bed) is also lower for the 2-step adsorption
cycle. The evaporator temperature in the single step
adsorption cycle is slightly higher than the temperature of the
two evaporators in the 2-step adsorption cycle.

Fig 8: Temperature at various components of the two-step adsorption

cooling system at near steady state condition.

Fig 10: Comparison of temperature at beds and evaporator(s) for a

modified (2-step) and a conventional (1-step) cycle.

Fig 9: Pressure at various components of the two-step adsorption

cooling system at near steady state condition.
Figures 8 and 9 depict the temperature and pressure behavior,
respectively, of the two-step adsorption cycle at steady state
conditions. The peaks (and dips) in the temperature of a bed,
which also corresponds to peaks (and dips) in the pressure of
the respective beds represent the process of pressurization
(isosteric heating) and depressurization (isosteric cooling)
respectively. Pressurization is followed by desorption and
depressurization is followed by adsorption. The two
evaporator temperature plots in figure 8 are noteworthy as
they show the two evaporators at slightly different
temperature. Figure 9 contains only one pressure plot for the Fig 11: Comparison of power input to TE devices for single as well
as two-step cycle experiments.
evaporator because a single pressure transducer was used to
measure the pressure for both evaporators. The pressure
7
The main advantage of the 2-step cycle lies in the reduction in
highest temperature and a drop in thermal swing for the
adsorption beds. For both (2-step and single-step)
experiments, the adsorption beds were heated to and
maintained at 145 0C before the start of the experiment. Hence
whatever heat was provided by the resistive heaters was
completely lost to ambient through insulation at the initial
steady state temperature. Any change in bed temperatures after
the initiation of experiment was due to the alternate heating
and cooling performed by TE device. Hence, in order to
conclusively prove the advantage of 2-step cycle over single-
step, it must be shown that during the course of the
experiment, both cycles were provided the same amount of
average energy per unit time by TE device. Figure 11
compares the electrical power input to TE device for both
cycles. From the figure it can be observed that the area
enclosed under both the power plots for a time interval of one
cycle time (i.e. 12 minutes: ref section 5) is the same.
Fig 12: Net power input to the various components of the systems.
Plots have been made for both single-step and two-step adsorption
cycle experiments.
Figure 12 compares the net energy input to the beds and TE
devices with the heat dissipated at the evaporator(s). This has
been shown for single-step as well as two-step adsorption
cycles. Net energy refers to total electrical energy input, less
the energy lost as heat leakage through insulations. Under
steady state the ratio of heat dissipated at evaporator(s) and the
net energy input to beds and TE devices should be an
indication of the overall system COP. The COP obtained for
the single step and two-step adsorption cycles are 0.28 and
0.35 respectively. This is much less than the COP of 1.2 and
0.7 as reported by Gordon et al [1] and Ng et al [2]
respectively. This could be because of the high temperature of
application and leakage issues associated with the set up. It
must be noted that for calculation in this paper, loss of
refrigerant vapor through leakages in the system was not taken
into account. The saturation pressure of water at heat rejection
temperature was compared with the measured condenser
pressure to gain an insight into amount of non-condensable air
introduced due to leakage, and experiment errors thereof.
Measured pressure was nearly 30% less than the expected
saturation pressure, thus pointing towards air leakage into the
system and the presence of leakage paths in the overall set up.
Air can leak into the system during experiment start up phase
when the bed and condenser pressures are less than
atmospheric pressure. While the system pressure is greater
than atmospheric pressure, vapor is expelled out of the system,
thus leading to spurious cooling. A comparison of the
mathematical model with expected experiment results [12]
indicates that the spurious cooling could be as high as 40% of
the total cooling observed.
Another reason for the low system COP could be the low
specific cooling capacity. For the system investigated nearly
6W could be pumped using 370g of zeolite. Implying a
specific cooling capacity of 16.21 W/kg. This compares
poorly with the system investigated by Ng et al [2], which was
able to pump 120W with 0.6kg of silica gel, implying a
specific cooling capacity of 200 W/kg.
Apart from performance, another measure of the suitability of
the system is its compactness. The system must be compact
enough to fit within electronic enclosures. For this purpose, a
comparison of the thermoelectric-adsorption compressor
(2200cc) was made with commercially available compressors
that are used in the assembly of vapor compression systems
for electronics (table 7).
Table 7: Volume of various commercially available
mechanical compressors that have been used for electronics
cooling [23].
Commercial name of Compressor Volume (cm3)
Danfoss BD35F 2229.3
Danfoss BD50F 2229.3
Danfoss TL4CL 3766.7
Danfoss FR8.4CL 4860.4
Danfoss NF9FX 3671.3
CONCLUSIONS
Need for reliable thermal management systems for cooling
electronics used in thermally harsh environment is set to grow
due to the non availability of high temperature compatible
electronics. Cooling systems that could be scaled to smaller
sizes without loss of efficiency, made compact enough to fit
inside electronic enclosures, be able to work continuously for
an extended period of time without any maintenance issue,
will best fit the needs of harsh environment application.
Adsorption systems (with thermoelectric driven heat
regeneration in between beds), by the virtue of their non-
mechanical mode of operation, can fulfill the needs of such a
cooling system. Experiments using thermoelectric- adsorption
chillers for electronics cooling (reported in literature) are
already a step ahead in this direction, however their
application at thermally harsh environment faces challenges in
terms of TE device reliability. At high temperatures TE
devices that play a critical role in miniaturization of
regenerative adsorption heat pump, become the weakest link
8
in the overall system reliability. The two-step adsorption cycle
as suggested in the work aims at reducing the temperature
variations at the hot and cold faces of a TE device and at the
same time reduces the overall temperature that the hot side
may face during regeneration. This has the effect of improving
the overall cycle efficiency.
Experiments were performed with a prototype adsorption
cooling system with TE driven heat regeneration. Results
show an improvement in COP over the single-step adsorption
cycle and decrease in temperature variations across the TE
device.
The work presented should be important in extending the
application of adsorption chillers with thermoelectric driven
heat regeneration towards higher temperature regime. This
should also help increase the working envelope of
commercially available electronics towards a thermally
harsher environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Support received from GWW School of Mechanical
Engineering during the course of this study is hereby
acknowledged.
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