Battery knowledge · Thermal management and heat transfer
Thermoelectric cooling
Solid-state heat pumping by the Peltier effect: current through junctions of semiconductor elements moves heat from one face to the other, and reversing the current reverses the direction. Peltier modules hold small test cells at a set temperature in laboratory fixtures, but their efficiency, usually a coefficient of performance below 1, is too low for vehicle packs.
- Abbreviation
- TEC
- Also called
- Peltier cooling, Peltier element, Peltier module
Example
Thermal management and heat transfer: an example situation
Equal total heat in different layouts can produce different gradients. Average temperature can miss a hot spot.
Read Thermoelectric cooling alongside Heat pump in this context. A refrigerant circuit run to move heat from a colder place to a warmer one, delivering two to three units of heat per unit of electricity in mild winter conditions. In an electric vehicle it warms the cabin and battery from outside air and the waste heat of the motor and inverter, saving winter range compared with resistive heaters.
Use in Lemonergy
Select spatial detail for the question.
This is a reference concept. No executable Lemonergy block has been verified for this term.
References & further reading
Further reading on this topic
These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.
- A General Energy Balance for Battery Systems
Dawn Bernardi, Ellen Pawlikowski, John Newman · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · 1985
Topic background · Battery energy balance and irreversible and reversible heat contributions. Reduced thermal models require explicit assumptions and current-sign conventions.
- University Physics Volume 2, §1.6: Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
OpenStax, Rice University
Topic background · Conduction, convection, radiation and thermal resistance.